KIM IL SUNG
WORKS
WORKING PEOPLE OF THE WHOLE WORLD, UNITE!
KIM IL SUNG
WORKS
13
January-December 1959
FOREIGN LANGUAGES PUBLISHING HOUSE
PYONGYANG, KOREA
1983
CONTENTS
SPEECH AT THE BANQUET GIVEN TO CELEBRATE
THE NEW YEAR
January 1, 1959 .1
ON THE VICTORY OF SOCIALIST AGRICULTURAL
COOPERATIVIZATION AND THE FUTURE
DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE IN OUR COUNTRY
Report to the National Congress of Agricultural
Cooperatives, January 5, 1959 .8
FOR THE SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION
OF IMMEDIATE TASKS OF AGRICULTURE
Concluding Speech at the National Congress of Agricultural
Cooperatives, January 9, 1959 .60
FOR KOREAN COMPATRIOTS IN JAPAN REPATRIATION
IS THEIR LEGITIMATE NATIONAL RIGHT
Talk to the Chief Director of the Japan-Korea Society, January 10, 1959 .71
CONCLUDING SPEECH AT THE FEBRUARY 1959
PLENARY MEETING OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE
OF THE WORKERS’ PARTY OF KOREA
February 25, 1959 .78
1. On Improving the Quality of Industrial Products.78
2. On Improving Transport.84
3. On Party Work.88
1
ON THE METHOD OF PARTY WORK
Speech at a Short Course for Party Organizers and Chairmen
of the Party Committees at Production Enterprises and Chairmen
of Provincial, City and County Party Committees, February 26, 1959 .97
1. On the Duties of Factory and County Party Committees.97
2. On the Style of Party Work.104
3. On the Work of Party Education and the Self-Culture of Party Officials.110
4. On the Composition of Party Membership and Some Other Questions.121
DISABLED SOLDIERS SHOULD LIVE IN A GOOD WAY
AND ALWAYS WITH OPTIMISM
Talk with Members of the Unggi Disabled Soldiers’ Daily-Necessities
Producers’ Cooperative, March 16, 1959 .133
ON IMPROVING THE WORK OF THE HOERYONG
COUNTY PARTY ORGANIZATION
Speech at a Plenary Meeting of the Hoeryong County
Party Committee, March 19, 1959 .136
TASKS OF THE PARTY ORGANIZATIONS
OF NORTH HAMGYONG PROVINCE
Speech Delivered at an Enlarged Plenary Meeting of the North Hamgyong
Provincial Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, March 23, 1959 . 172
1. On Party Work.175
2. On the Work of the Peopel’s Committees.195
3. On Industry.202
4. On Agriculture.216
5. On the Fishing Industry.221
6. On Construction Work.223
SPEECH AT THE CEREMONY FOR THE COMMISSIONING
OF BLAST FURNACES NOS. 1 AND 2 AND COKE OVEN
NO. 2 OF THE KIM CHALK IRON WORKS
2
March 23, 1959.
225
HEALTH WORKERS SHOULD BE TRUE
SERVANTS OF THE PEOPLE
Talk with Health Workers, April 24, 1959 .232
CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE TO ALL MEMBERS
OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES, THE WORKERS,
TECHNICIANS AND OFFICE EMPLOYEES OF THE OJIDON
IRRIGATION CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, AND YOUTHS,
STUDENTS AND SOLDIERS WHO HAVE PARTICIPATED
IN THE OJIDON IRRIGATION PROJECT
April 30, 1959 .236
ON MAINTAINING REVOLUTIONARY UPSURGE IN SOCIALIST
CONSTRUCTION AND SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTING THIS
YEAR’S NATIONAL ECONOMIC PLAN
Speech at an Enlarged Meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee
of the Workers’ Party of Korea, May 5, 1959 .238
1. On Maintaining Revolutionary Upsurge in Socialsit Construction
and Successfully Implementing This Year’s National Economic Plan.238
2. On Developing Local Industry.256
ON OPPOSING DOGMATISM AND ESTABLISHING JUCHE
IN PARTY POLITICAL WORK IN THE PEOPLE’S ARMY
Talk with Military and Political Workers at the Corps or Higher
Levels of the Korean People’s Army, May 16, 1959 .264
TALK WITH OFFICIALS OF THE WONSAN RAILWAY FACTORY
June 4, 1959 .275
FOR THE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF FISHERIES
Speech Delivered at a Meeting of Active Party Members
in the Fishery Sector of Kangwon Province, June 11, 1959 .284
3
LET US SHOW THE WHOLE WORLD
THE EXCELLENCE OF SOCIALIST ART
Talk with the Artists Who Are to Participate in the Seventh
World Festival of Youth and Students, July 1, 1959 .307
LET US GRASP THE MAIN OBJECTIVE AND CONCENTRATE
FORCES ON IT IN THE SOLUTION OF ALL QUESTIONS
Speech at an Enlarged Meeting of the Party Committee
of the Hwanghae Iron Works, September 4, 1959 .317
1. On Normalizing Produciton.320
2. On the Question of Workers’ Living Standard.330
3. On Strengthening the Party’s Organizational and Political Work.335
MILITANT FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN THE KOREAN
AND CHINESE PEOPLES
Article Carried in the Renmin Ribao on the Occasion
of the 10th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic
of China, September 26, 1959 .343
FOR THE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL INDUSTRY
Concluding Speech at the National Conference of Activists of Local
Industry and Producers’ Cooperatives, October 15, 1959 .356
DISABLED SOLDIERS WHO SHED THEIR BLOOD
TO DEFEND THE COUNTRY SHOULD ALSO BE
EXEMPLARY IN SOCIALIST CONSTRUCTION
Speech to Disabled Soldiers Who Attended the National
Conference of Activists of Local Industry and Producers’
Cooperatives, October 17, 1959 .364
ON SOME PROBLEMS ARISING IN ECONOMIC
LEADERSHIP AND CULTURAL REVOLUTION
Speech at an Enlarged Meeting of the Presidium of the Central
Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, October 22, 1959 .373
4
ON SOME IMMEDIATE TASKS IN SOCIALIST
ECONOMIC CONSTRUCTION
Concluding Speech at a Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee
of the Workers’ Party of Korea, December 4, 1959 .389
1. On the Shortcomings in Implementing This Year’s Plan.390
2. On Major Issues in the 1960 Plan for the Development
of the National Economy.403
3. On Improving the Work of Local Government Bodies.426
4. On Creating Forests of Economic Value.433
5. On Party Work.435
THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA IS THE
TRUE HOMELAND OF KOREAN COMPATRIOTS IN JAPAN
Talk to the Compatriots Who Returned by the First Batch
of Repatriation Ships, December 21, 1959 .451
5
SPEECH AT THE BANQUET GIVEN
TO CELEBRATE THE NEW YEAR
January 1, 1959
Dear comrades and friends.
The Korean people, having seen 1958, the year during which a
great deal of work was done to build socialism, on its way out, are
today welcoming in the year 1959 which promises greater progress.
Greeting this happy New Year, on behalf of the Workers’ Party of
Korea and the Government of the Republic, I offer my warm
congratulations to you all.
The year 1958 was a year when a great upswing and numerous
changes took place in our socialist construction. It will remain for ever
recorded in our nation’s history as a year of great victories.
Last year saw the accomplishment of the historic task of socialist
transformation in towns and the countryside. In our country socialism
has won a decisive victory. This has been a historic event in the
development of our country.
Last year, substantial progress was also made in the socialist
industrialization.
The industry built by our Party and working people through a
hard-fought struggle has become stronger and more developed and has
demonstrated its great potential last year. Industrial production in 1957
was 44 per cent greater than in the previous year, and last year it
registered a further growth of 40 per cent thanks to the heroic struggle
of our working class. Its material and technical foundations have also
1
been consolidated. Last year, we even produced large-sized
metallurgical equipment and heavy machines on our own. Now we can
make as much as we want of what we need without any outside help.
Our country has got rid of centuries-old backwardness and become
a developed, socialist industrial and agricultural state with independent
economic foundations. This is an event of historic significance in our
people’s life.
In high spirits, our working people are achieving miraculous
success every day. In response to the letter of the Central Committee of
the Workers’ Party of Korea they are making mass innovations in the
technical revolution and increasing their productivity two or three
times. Conservatism and mysticism about technology have
disappeared and new mechanized vehicles such as lorries, tractors,
bulldozers, excavators and wagons are rolling forward, and technical
innovations are being made one after another.
Last year, we mobilized all local potential and built more than one
thousand medium- and small-sized factories which are operated on a
local basis.
In 1958, we attained a high peak in carrying out the First Five-Year
Plan by achieving a great success in the industrial sector.
A great success was also scored in agriculture.
With the completion of agricultural cooperativization in accordance
with the Party’s policies, the sources of exploitation and poverty were
permanently eliminated from the countryside. By raising the living
standards of all the peasants to that of middle peasants or higher, the
question of poor peasants, a matter which was a source of serious
concern for us, was completely resolved. We are very gratified about
this.
Agricultural cooperatives in each ri have been successfully
amalgamated and, in consequence, our socialist agriculture has entered
a new stage of development.
On the strength of the advantages of the cooperative economy and
the high enthusiasm of peasants, we produced 3.7 million tons of grain
last year-all-time record in grain production-in spite of a long spell of
2
severe drought. In increasing the per-hectare grain yields, innovative
achievements were recorded. These would have been unattainable with
the old farming method.
Along with the substantial increase in grain production, a great
success was also achieved in stockbreeding and in the cultivation of
industrial crops.
As a result, our agriculture has now completely solved the food
problem and laid the necessary foundations to satisfy the industrial
demands for raw materials.
At present, our farmers, with the support of the working class, are
striving for an extensive introduction of irrigation, electrification and
mechanization in agriculture according to the policy put forward by the
Party. Great afforestation and water conservation projects are being
carried out in all parts of the country; the system of irrigating both rice
fields and non-paddy fields is being established in a powerful mass
movement. Medium- and small-sized power plants have been built on
a big scale in the countryside for the supply of electricity even to
remote mountain villages, and a large number of modem farm
machinery is being supplied to the rural areas.
All these things taking place in the life of our farmers, who have
suffered from poverty, natural calamities and backbreaking work for
thousands of years, far removed from modem civilization, constitute a
historic change in our countryside. In the near future it will become a
developed, more abundant and cultured rural community where farm
work is done on the basis of modem technology.
In 1958, great progress was achieved in the cultural revolution as
well.
The system of universal compulsory secondary education was
successfully introduced, and preparations for compulsory technical
education actively promoted.
Working people’s primary and middle schools were set up and run
throughout the country, and the task of raising the intellectual level of
all adults to that of junior middle school graduates and above is being
carried out successfully.
3
A great change was effected in school education which was
conducted in accordance with the policy of our Party and the
Government of the Republic on properly combining education with
productive labour to train versatile builders of communism.
A big success was also achieved in science, literature and art. Our
scientists and technicians succeeded in the use of ferro-coke for iron
production and in the manufacture of vinalon, solved scientific and
technological problems arising in the production of fibre from reeds
and maize stalks and thus made a tangible contribution to the nation’s
economic progress.
As a result of the steady economic progress, the Party’s policy on
efficiently solving the problems of food, clothing and housing for the
people is being successfully implemented. Last year the real wages of
industrial and non-industrial workers rose by 50 per cent over those in
the prewar year of 1949. On top of that, the state decided on raising
their wages by 40 per cent from January this year. Large numbers of
houses were built in urban and rural communities and the working
people’s living conditions are improving every year.
The year 1958 was a year of continuous advance and innovations, a
year of ceaseless upsurge and a year of brilliant exploits performed by
our working people who are moving forward speedily in the spirit of
Chollima riders.
On behalf of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Government of
the Republic, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to our
heroic working class, cooperative farmers and working intellectuals.
The year 1958 was characterized by a new upsurge for the northern
half of Korea, whereas it was a year of further decline and ruin for
south Korea under the occupation of the US imperialists.
South Korea is in the abyss of economic bankruptcy and political
confusion. Today the south Korean people are suffering from extreme
absence of rights and poverty under fascist repression and
multi-faceted exploitation.
We can never forget the south Korean brothers who are going
through hardship and miserable plight in a gloomy New Year.
4
The cause of their miseries and sufferings lies in the occupation of
south Korea by US imperialism. So the US imperialists must withdraw
from south Korea as early as possible.
The success in socialist construction in the northern half of Korea
means a heavy blow to the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee
clique. It also means immeasurable encouragement to the south
Korean people who are fighting for the country’s peaceful
reunification. Under the impact of this success, more south Koreans
will be aroused with every passing day. Our country will certainly be
reunified in a peaceful way and the people in south Korea will have
their day of freedom and happiness.
The Korean compatriots in Japan are struggling to realize their
burning desire to return to their homeland, but this desire has not yet
been realized because of the inhumane persecution and obstructive
manoeuvres of the Japanese government. They are greeting the New
Year in a difficult situation in a foreign land. But no one or no force
will ever be able to keep them from exercising their solemn right and
from realizing their humanitarian desire to return home in search of a
better livelihood.
I send New Year greetings to all the Korean compatriots in Japan
who are going through difficulties, and I do hope that their aspiration
would be realized as soon as possible.
1958 was a year of great victories for the forces of peace-lovers and
socialism the world over.
Last year, the solidarity and strength of the socialist camp increased
further, and in contrast the forces of imperialism became weaker. The
policy of aggression pursued by international reactionary forces, led by
the US imperialists, is failing in all parts of the world.
On behalf of all the Korean people, I extend ardent congratulations
to the peoples of the Soviet Union, China and other fraternal socialist
countries for their great victories and wish them greater success in the
new year.
Dear comrades and friends,
1958 will be another year of great victories in our socialist
5
construction. More progress will be achieved in all fields of the
national economy, thanks to the existing foundations and the precious
success registered last year.
This year will be a significant year during which we will implement
the First Five-Year Plan.
At present, the morale of our working people is sky-high.
This year will witness a new upswing in industrial production. If we
increase it by only 32 per cent over the figure of last year, we will be
able to realize the Five-Year Plan.
There will be a great change in agricultural production, too. This
year we must produce at least five million tons of grain. Our farmers
are now struggling to reach a production target of ten tons or more of
rice yield per-hectare.
This year will prove a great success in rural electrification. If this
task is generally performed, comprehensive mechanization will be
accelerated in the countryside, and then the rural community will
acquire a new look.
Our prospects are brilliant, and our target is distinct.
We must speed up our efforts to make more progress as from the
first day of the new year in order to complete the Five-Year Plan this
year.
Workers in all sectors of the national economy must work hard to
realize their production plans daily, monthly and quarterly and in terms
of indices. They must strive more vigorously to make continual
technical innovations and to carry out the technical revolution. In the
countryside, farmers must strive to produce more barnyard manure, till
the land deeper and sow closer to increase radically the per-hectare
grain yields.
This year we must bring about a great change in our effort to
improve the quality of manufactured goods. This is an urgent
requirement of our socialist construction which is advancing by leaps
and bounds in its new stage as well as the demand of the people whose
living standard is improving quickly.
We have gained priceless experience in every sector of production
6
and construction and laid the technological foundations to improve
radically the quality of products.
The quality of all goods must be high enough to meet the demands
of the socialist era and everything must have socialist content. All
manufactured goods should be serviceable to the working people,
attractive and durable.
We must improve transport, goods distribution, and public catering
and also make innovations in the fields of education, culture, public
health, science, literature and art.
The new year must see great progress in the cultural revolution. We
have established the most advanced social system in the history and
provided cultured living conditions for all the working people. We
must struggle to eliminate outdated customs persisting in their
everyday lives and lead them to build their lives in a cultured way in
accordance with the developing reality. We must make a step forward
in establishing communist morality and beautiful customs.
We must intensify communist education among the working people
to build socialism more quickly and better and accelerate our transition
to communism.
Today our working people are very enthusiastic and have a firm
confidence in victory.
I firmly believe that all our working people will rally closely around
the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the
Government of the Republic and achieve more miraculous success this
year.
7
ON THE VICTORY OF SOCIALIST
AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVIZATION
AND THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
OF AGRICULTURE IN OUR COUNTRY
Report to the National Congress
of Agricultural Cooperatives
January 5, 1959
Comrades,
Today we are in an era of revolutionary upsurge and prosperity
unprecedented in the history of our country and nation.
Under the leadership of our Party, our people have laid the
foundations of an independent economy by overcoming numerous
difficulties in postwar reconstruction and have won a decisive victory
for the socialist revolution in the northern half of Korea. On this basis,
socialist construction in our country has entered a period of great
upsurge and in response to the Party’s call all the people are making
progress with the speed of Chollima riders. On all fronts of socialist
construction world-shaking miracles are being performed and great
progress is being made every day.
Thanks to the heroic labour of our working class, a large number of
factories and enterprises equipped with modem technology are being
built one after another and the productive forces of industry are
developing by leaps and bounds. In 1957, the industrial output was 44
per cent higher than in the previous year, and in 1958 it again rose by
40 per cent over that of 1957. Last year, our workers produced 3.7
times as much industrial goods as in the prewar year of 1949.
As in industry, great achievements have been registered in all other
branches of the national economy including agriculture, railway
transport, capital construction, so on and so forth.
On the basis of the success attained in socialist construction and the
high revolutionary zeal of our working people, our Party proposed in
September of last year magnificent long-term tasks for transforming
our country into a developed, socialist industrial state.
The magnificent long-term tasks proposed by our Party have the
enthusiastic support of our working people and have further fired their
revolutionary zeal. To accelerate socialist construction in the northern
half of Korea, our working people are now demonstrating unparalleled
enthusiasm for work and inexhaustible creative talents in their
determination to realize the current First Five-Year Plan two years
ahead of schedule and to carry out successfully long-term tasks
proposed by the Party.
Agriculture has a very important role to play in carrying out the
magnificent programme of socialist construction. Without developing
the productive forces of agriculture to a higher level, it will not be
possible to provide the working people with an abundance of food, nor
to supply the rapidly developing industry with enough raw materials.
Under the guidance of our Party, the peasants have already
accomplished a great deal in the reconstruction and development of the
productive forces of agriculture and have completed the socialist
cooperativization of agriculture. Today our peasants are striving to
turn our countryside into a socialist one, rich and cultured, equipped
with modem technology, by carrying out the technical and cultural
revolutions.
Convened under these circumstances, this National Congress of
Agricultural C ooperatives is of historic significance to the life not only
of the peasants but of all the people in our country.
At this congress, we will assess the great victory achieved by our
peasants in the socialist transformation of agriculture under the
guidance of the Party.
9
We will also analyse our splendid achievements in the struggle to
reconstruct the devastated agriculture, to further develop the
productive forces of agriculture and speedily improve the deteriorated
livelihood of the peasants.
We will also thoroughly discuss new militant tasks that have to be
carried out in agriculture, and then we will move forward more
vigorously to fulfil them.
Comrades,
The agricultural and peasant questions are one of the most
important problems of our revolution. Our Party has always given
great attention to finding a solution.
After liberation, the solution of the land problem in the countryside
was our most urgent revolutionary task. The feudal relations of land-
ownership prevailing in our rural areas had not only shackled millions
of peasants to feudal exploitation and slavery and restricted the
development of the productive forces of agriculture, but also had
impeded overall social progress. Therefore, the solution of the land
problem was the basic task of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal
democratic revolution.
The historic agrarian reform carried out by our Party and the
people’s power, with the active support and participation of the
peasants, rid the countryside of the feudal scourge, thereby delivering
the peasants from exploitation and paving the way for the development
of the productive forces of agriculture. Through the agrarian reform,
over one million hectares of land owned by the Japanese imperialists
and the landlords was confiscated without compensation and
distributed gratuitously to more than 700,000 peasant families who had
little or no land at all. After the landownership of the landlords was
abolished and when the land became the land of the peasants who were
tilling it, agriculture made rapid progress and the peasants’ standard of
living was markedly improved. The agrarian reform strengthened the
economic links between towns and the countryside, between industry
and agriculture, and consolidated the alliance between the working
class and the peasantry. Thus, the agrarian reform marked a
10
far-reaching revolutionary change of tremendous political and
economic significance.
The agrarian reform, however, could not solve the peasant problem
once and for all, nor could it completely free the productive forces in
agriculture.
As a result of the agrarian reform, the individual peasant economy
based on small commodity production became predominant in our
countryside. As Lenin said, small-scale production engenders
capitalism and the bourgeoisie continuously, daily, hourly,
spontaneously, and on a mass scale. Of course, in our country where
the people, with the working class as the core, had seized power and
the basic means of production were concentrated in the hands of the
state, and where the agrarian reform was carried out thoroughly, the
process of class differentiation in the countryside was bound to be
extremely limited. Under the conditions of a small-scale commodity
economy, however, it was impossible to improve the peasants’
livelihood radically and wipe out the sources of exploitation and
poverty once and for all.
There can be no planned development and, for the most part, no
possibility of extended reproduction in the small-scale, scattered
individual peasant economy. It was clear that as long as the small-scale
peasant economy remained predominant, the development of our
agriculture would inevitably be restricted to definite limitations.
Contrary to this, our country’s nationalized socialist industry was
reconstructed and developed at a rapid rate in accordance with the state
plan, and extended reproduction was continuously maintained. Our
people’s power could not remain based on two different economic
foundations-large-scale, concentrated socialist industry and
fragmented, scattered individual peasant economy-for a long time.
This contradiction remained a question we had to solve before
long. As Marxism-Leninism teaches and the experience of the Soviet
Union shows us, only by leading the individual peasant economy
along the road of socialist cooperativization can the peasant problem
be solved and the agricultural productive forces be completely freed
11
from the fetters of the old production relations.
In the situation created in our country after the armistice, a solution
to the agricultural and peasant questions according to that policy
became the most pressing task.
Due to the three-year war, our national economy was devastated
beyond description and cities and villages were reduced to rubble. The
people’s livelihood was extremely impoverished and we were in great
need of food and clothing. We had to reconstruct industry and
agriculture, lay the foundations of an independent economy and
improve the people’s ruined livelihood in a short time.
In this respect, the rapid reconstruction and development of
agriculture, particularly a solution to the food problem of the
population, became one of the most important issues.
The war seriously damaged the material foundations of agriculture
and created a great shortage of labour and draught animals in the
countryside. The peasant economy became all the more fragmented
and its economic foundations were further weakened.
Under these conditions, the very limited nature of individual
peasant economy based on small-scale commodity production became
ever more pronounced. As long as individual peasant economy was left
intact, it would have been impossible to rehabilitate the devastated
agriculture rapidly or to solve the very difficult food problem in the
postwar period. It was apparent that this would greatly impede the
rapid reconstruction and development of industry and, furthermore, the
reconstruction of the national economy as a whole. The postwar
contradictions between socialist industry and individual peasant
economy were fraught with the danger of creating a gross
disproportion between industry, which was in the process of rapid
reconstruction and development and undergoing a qualitative change,
and agriculture, which was being reconstructed at a snail’s pace. On
the basis of the small peasant economy which is incapable of
eliminating the source of exploitation and poverty, our peasants’
ruined livelihood could not be speedily improved and, in particular, it
was impossible to solve the question of the poor peasants whose
12
number greatly increased during the war.
The only way to overcome all the difficulties confronting our
country’s agriculture in the postwar period lay in the cooperativization
of the individual peasant economy. Only through the socialist
transformation of agriculture could the rapid reconstruction and further
development of the devastated productive forces in agriculture be
guaranteed and, accordingly, the proportionate development of
industry and agriculture be made possible. Only on the basis of
socialist cooperative farming could the peasants’ ruined livelihood be
rapidly stabilized and, furthermore, their standard of living radically
improved.
Therefore, our Party proposed the task of agricultural
cooperativization at the Sixth Plenary Meeting of the Party Central
Committee convened in August 1953, right after the armistice.
The cooperativization of agriculture is one of the most difficult
tasks in the socialist revolution. Lenin said: “Such tremendous changes
in the lives of tens of millions of people as the transition from small
individual peasant farming to collective farming, affecting as they do
the most-deep-going roots of the peasants’ way of life and their mores,
can only be accomplished by long effort, and only when necessity
compels people to reshape their lives.”
In our country, too, preparations for the agricultural cooperative
movement had already been made step by step from the prewar period,
but the movement became an urgent task only when it started to be
considered as a vital requirement in the life of the peasants.
In the process of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic
revolution the landlords and comprador capitalists were eliminated and
the basic means of production were nationalized; this created an
important condition conducive to the future socialist transformation of
agriculture.
In carrying out the agrarian reform we confiscated all the lands not
tilled by the owners including that of the landlords and, after the
reform, we strictly forbade the sale, mortgage and leasing of land. As a
result of such a thoroughgoing enforcement of the agrarian reform, not
13
only was the landlord class eliminated, but the rich peasants who were
originally an insignificant force in our country, were hit hard and their
growth was severely restricted.
Tha nk s to the accomplishment of democratic reforms, our people’s
government began to carry out the tasks that had to be done during the
period of gradual transition from capitalism to socialism. The Party
and the Government continually strengthened the socialist elements in
all sectors of the national economy by rapidly developing socialist
industry and expanding state and cooperative trade in the sphere of
commodity distribution. On the other hand, they controlled and
restricted the growth of the capitalist elements by means of taxes, price
policies, so on and so forth. At the same time, the Party and the
Government further promoted economic links between towns and the
countryside and between socialist industry and individual peasant
economy, and strengthened the planned control of the development of
the individual peasant economy. Also, by having already set up state
agricultural and livestock farms and farm machine hire stations before
the war, our Party demonstrated to the peasants the advantages of
mechanized and large-scale farming and carried out the preparatory
work to lead them gradually along the socialist path.
Particularly during the war, our Party concentrated its main efforts
on rural work, expanded state farming considerably and, at the same
time, widely popularized and developed amongst the peasants such
cooperative forms of labour as the ox-sharing and labour-aid teams,
which had a long tradition in our country, with a view to overcoming
the acute shortage of manpower, draught animals and farm implements
in the rural districts. This further promoted the spirit of mutual
assistance amongst our peasants and their desire for cooperative
farming.
Comrades,
Our Party led the agricultural cooperative movement with great
circumspection and energy.
It observed strictly the Leninist principle of free choice in leading
the movement and adopted the policy of developing it on a mass-scale
14
by making the peasants realize the advantages of cooperative farming
through practical experience.
Right after the armistice the poor peasants were the most active in
accepting and supporting our Party’s policy on agricultural
cooperativization. Their own difficult living conditions plus persistent
education by our Party brought them to the realization that without the
transformation of their economy their life could not be improved and
that only the road of socialist cooperative economy could lead them to
happiness.
Firmly relying on the poor peasants and its activists in the
countryside, the Party first mobilized them and organized several
agricultural cooperatives in each county. This marked the start of the
experimental stage in the agricultural cooperative movement in our
country. Our Party’s aims at this experimental stage were to have the
officials gain experience in the organization of cooperative farming
and acquire confidence in the victory of the cooperative movement
and, what was important, to draw all the peasants, the middle peasants
in particular, into the cooperative movement on a mass scale by
showing them the advantages of cooperative farming in practice.
It was indescribably difficult to strengthen those agricultural
cooperatives which embraced only poor peasants who had the poorest
land, the fewest draught animals and farming implements and the
lowest standard of living, and to make them demonstrate their
superiority over individual farming. But we firmly believed that we
were fully capable of coping with this problem.
In this issue, we were guided by Lenin’s words that every social
system is created only with the financial assistance of a definite class
and that the system to which the socialist state must give more
assistance than usual is the cooperative system.
The Party and the state gave all-out, nationwide assistance to the
first agricultural cooperatives, by giving active guidance to their
managerial and operational work, by granting them loans of money,
food and seed grains, by providing fertilizer and farm implements on a
preferential basis, and by supplying manpower. Tha nks to this
15
assistance by the state and to the devoted work of the cooperative
members, the agricultural cooperatives gradually began to prove their
worth. Already by 1954, per-unit-area grain yields in cooperative
farming were 10-50 per cent higher and cash income was 2-7 times
higher than the corresponding figures in the individual peasant
economy.
Thus, the poor peasants in our country played the honourable role
of pioneers in the agricultural cooperative movement, courageously
overcoming all obstacles and difficulties under the guidance of the
Party and with the assistance of the state. Although the agricultural
cooperatives these peasants organized seemed insignificant and very
weak compared to the individual peasant economy which was
predominant in the countryside at that time, they were an embryo
which grew into a great force to kindle the flames of the socialist
revolution all over the rural districts.
Thanks to the advantages demonstrated so clearly by these
cooperatives and the tireless organizational and political work carried
out by our Party amongst broad sections of the peasantry, not only poor
but also middle peasants were drawn into the cooperative movement.
Thus, the agricultural cooperative movement entered the stage of
mass-scale development in our country.
As the peasants joined in cooperative farming on a massive scale,
the question of the form and size of the cooperatives became very
important.
In consideration of the fact that the land had remained the private
property of the peasants whose economic position and preparedness
varied, our Party at the beginning of the cooperative movement
proposed three types of cooperative farming. In organizing
cooperatives, it led the peasants in choosing the suitable type according
to their specific conditions. The first type of cooperative farming was
the permanent mutual-aid workteam in which only the work was done
collectively; the second was a semi-socialist type in which land was
pooled and farming was done collectively, while the profits were
distributed according to both the amount of work done and the size of
16
land pooled; and the third was a completely socialist type in which the
land and the basic means of production were pooled and the profit
shares distributed solely according to the work done.
In organizing cooperatives, we did not automatically pool the
draught animals and farm implements of the cooperative members, but
saw to it that they were either pooled if the peasants so desired or that
they were used commonly while temporarily continuing to be under
private ownership. In case where they were pooled, due compensation
was given without fail.
The three types of cooperatives and the method of pooling the
means of production induced the middle peasants into accepting
cooperative farming readily and made it possible to prevent any kind of
deviation which might have appeared in the process of
cooperativization.
In view of the lack of experience in the management of cooperative
farming, the low standard of the management personnel and the low
technical level of our agriculture, our Party saw to it that the size of the
cooperatives was kept comparatively small, each including 40 to 100
households. This was the right size for the cooperatives under the
conditions existing at that time.
The quantitative growth of cooperative farming took place
simultaneously with its qualitative consolidation in our agricultural
cooperative movement.
As the peasants’ enthusiasm mounted, the Party actively stepped up
the momentum of cooperativization and, at the same time,
concentrated its efforts and those of the state on giving guidance to the
organized agricultural cooperatives in order to consolidate them
politically and economically. Particularly, the intensive guidance
organized once or twice a year from early 1955, in which thousands of
national and local officials were mobilized, played an important role in
the development of our country’s agricultural cooperative movement.
In the course of this guidance work tremendous success was achieved
in correctly selecting and allocating management personnel; in
establishing a socialist order and system in the young cooperatives; in
17
strengthening the socialist education of the cooperative members; in
consolidating the economic foundations of the cooperatives and in
improving the living conditions of their members in a short space of
time by rapidly increasing production.
The support given through the state by the working class was of
decisive significance in consolidating the agricultural cooperatives. In
the postwar years, state funds equivalent to a total of 12,000 million
won were invested in agriculture to undertake irrigation and river-bank
projects, to expand the network of farm machine hire stations, to train
agro-technicians, so on and so forth.
During this period, while guaranteeing priority in the development
of heavy industry, our Party concentrated its strength particularly on
those branches of heavy industry which were urgently needed for the
development of agriculture and light industry. Thus, the state supplied
the countryside with large quantities of chemical fertilizer, farming
machinery, building materials and various kinds of consumer goods.
At the same time, the state loaned over 300,000 tons of grain for
provisions and seed and more than 24,300 million won of farming
funds to the agricultural cooperatives with weak economic foundations
and to the poor peasants. It also wrote off over 160,000 tons of tax in
kind and grain loans and over 1,400 million won in loans. As from
1956, the state also introduced nationwide the system of fixed tax in
kind and considerably lowered the tax rate and, at the same time, gave
the agricultural cooperatives a 5 per cent discount on the tax in kind,
with a view to lessening the burden on the peasants and encouraging
their zeal to increase production.
In order to solve the acute postwar manpower shortage in the
countryside, our Party allocated tens of thousands of ex-servicemen
and many junior and senior middle school graduates to the countryside,
and gave labour assistance during busy farming seasons every year
amounting to millions of man-days, by mobilizing office workers,
students and soldiers.
Thanks to the correct leadership by our Party and the enormous
assistance of the state, as well as to the dedicated work of our peasants
18
who were inspired by such leadership and assistance, despite the
difficult postwar conditions and the acute lack of experience in
cooperative farming-a system entirely new to our country-we were
able to quickly consolidate, both politically and economically, the
agricultural cooperatives which had multiplied rapidly, and to
guarantee the steady development of the productive forces in
agriculture and the rapid improvement of the peasants’ standard of
living.
As the organized agricultural cooperatives were strengthened and
their superiority was demonstrated more convincingly, the
development of the agricultural cooperative movement was further
promoted.
On the basis of such experience and results achieved in agricultural
cooperativization, the Third Congress of our Party proposed the
historic task of completing this movement during the First Five-Year
Plan. In order to fulfil this task in a brief space of time, our Party
concentrated its efforts in those areas where the level of
cooperativization was low, while consolidating the victories already
won in cooperativization.
The section of society which still remained outside the agricultural
cooperatives at that time included mostly well-to-do peasants; those
peasants around the cities who were engaged both in farming and, to a
considerable extent, in trade; peasants living in extremely sparsely
populated mountain areas and those peasants in the newly-liberated
areas. In drawing all these peasants into agricultural cooperatives, the
Party also adhered to the principle of free choice and consistently
followed the policy of further strengthening the already-organized
cooperative economy, thereby making them join voluntarily on
realizing its superiority and advantages.
As a result, agricultural cooperativization in our country was
victoriously completed by the end of August 1958. This was a great
revolution in our countryside and a brilliant victory for our Party’s
agricultural policy.
Our countryside, permanently freed from all the sources of
19
exploitation and poverty which had existed for thousands of years, has
now been reorganized into a socialist countryside where all the
working peasants can work and live together freely and happily.
Millions of peasants in our country who until yesterday were small
proprietors clinging to a patch of land, became masters of the unified,
large-scale cooperative economy, honourable socialist working
people.
The agricultural productive forces have been completely freed from
all the fetters of the old production relations and a broad avenue has
been opened up for their development.
As a result of the victory of the agricultural cooperative movement,
the worker-peasant alliance has been all the more consolidated on a
new, socialist basis. Our working class, which holds power in its
hands, guaranteed state assistance and firm leadership to the peasants
by displaying its resolute fighting will and vigorous revolutionary
stamina, and thereby demonstrated the justness of its cause to the
peasant masses and united them solidly on its side.
The cooperativization of agriculture also promoted the
reorganization, along socialist lines, of private trade and industry in
towns. These were weak from the start, and were mainly based on
small-scale commodity production in the countryside. The last
foothold of capitalist elements in towns collapsed with the
cooperativization of the individual peasant economy. Thus, in our
country the cooperativization of agriculture and the socialist
transformation of private trade and industry developed side by side and
were completed almost simultaneously.
We completed such a great and difficult reform very smoothly and
without committing any mistakes in only four to five years following
the war.
Comrades,
How could we accomplish so smoothly and in so short a time such a
difficult task as agricultural cooperativization which signifies such
radical changes in all aspects of the life of millions of peasants? This is
attributable to the fact that our Party had proposed a correct policy for
20
the agricultural cooperative movement by linking Marxism-Leninism
and the experience of other countries with our country’s reality, that it
struggled unswervingly to carry out this policy, overcoming all
difficulties and obstacles, while our peasants actively supported the
Party’s policy of agricultural cooperativization and enthusiastically
took part in this movement.
This movement was also accomplished through class struggle. The
overthrown exploiting classes did not give up their wild dream of
restoring the old system, our country was divided and we came face to
face with the enemy. Because of this, we had to fight against the
enemy’s subversive activities in the course of the cooperative
movement.
The class enemies vilified the Party’s policies, spread reactionary
rumours against the agricultural cooperative movement, carried out
sabotage activities to damage common property and hamper
production in their desperate attempts to break up our agricultural
cooperatives from within and from without. In particular, the
manoeuvres, sabotage and subversive activities of the
counter-revolutionaries grew more vicious as agricultural
cooperativization was nearing completion and the victory of socialism
was becoming decisive in towns and the countryside.
Our Party organized and pushed forward a mass movement to
combat the counter-revolution, while strengthening political and
ideological work amongst the peasant masses to enhance their socialist
consciousness and revolutionary vigilance. Thus, we exposed and
smashed, at every step, all enemy machinations in the countryside,
guaranteed the success of the cooperative movement and firmly
safeguarded the gains of socialism.
In agricultural cooperativization, our Party adhered to the Marxist-
Leninist principle on the peasant question, while intensifying the
struggle against counter-revolution.
The peasant question concerns the ally of the working class and the
attitude of the working class and its party towards different sections of
the peasantry.
21
To rely firmly on poor peasants, strengthen the alliance with the
middle peasants and restrict and remould the rich peasants-this was the
keynote of our Party’s class policy in the countryside.
The class relations in our countryside were decisively favourable to
the agricultural cooperative movement. As for the composition of
society in our countryside at the outset of cooperativization, the poor
peasants comprised about 40 per cent and the rich peasants no more
than 0.6 per cent. The majority of the middle peasants had attained that
status after the agrarian reform.
The poor peasants were in an extremely miserable position, which
made it necessary for them to join the cooperatives immediately, and
the majority of the new middle peasants supported cooperativization
from the beginning. The rest of the middle peasants, however,
hesitated and adopted a wait-and-see attitude. Meanwhile, the rich
peasants were indifferent to or aligned themselves against
cooperativization.
Through persistent explanation, persuasion and object lessons, our
Party induced the wavering middle peasants to join the cooperatives.
With regard to the rich peasants, it strictly limited their exploiting
tendency, and welcomed those who were inclined to work honestly
into the cooperatives and reformed them into socialist working people.
Meanwhile, the Party treated the handful of those elements who
obstructed the cooperative movement in the manner that they
deserved. As the cooperative movement entered its final stage, those
who could be exploited in the countryside disappeared and the
cooperative economy was further consolidated. Thus, the rich peasants
also gradually came to join voluntarily. This class policy of our Party
guaranteed the development of the agricultural cooperative movement
on a sound basis, strengthened the alliance with the middle peasants
and guaranteed the socialist reforming of the rich peasants.
Our Party had to overcome both impetuosity and conservatism
manifested locally in the process of agricultural cooperativization.
The Party was strictly on the alert against the tendency to bring the
peasants into the cooperative economy through administrative
22
methods in violation of the principle of free choice, and in time
rectified the tendency to increase the number of cooperatives hastily
and organize only an unreasonably large, advanced type of
cooperatives.
On the other hand, there were some people who preached that the
cooperative movement was “premature” and others who were
awe-struck by the rapid development of the agricultural cooperative
movement in our country and kept back.
When our Party proposed the policy of agricultural
cooperativization certain people questioned it, saying, “How can we
undertake cooperativization when the north and the south are still
partitioned?” or “How can we proceed with cooperativization when we
still do not have machines and other necessary things?” These people
were ignorant of the fact that socialist construction in the northern half
of Korea is the decisive guarantee for the peaceful reunification of our
country.
The requirements of the social and economic development in the
northern half of Korea made agricultural cooperativization and
socialist construction as a whole necessary in the northern half. We
cannot mark time or hold back the social development of the northern
half until the southern half is liberated, on the pretext that this still has
not been done. Needless to say, if we do not build socialism, we cannot
consolidate the northern half of the country-our revolutionary
base-either politically or economically. Consequently we would not be
able to accelerate the peaceful reunification of our country.
The technical reconstruction of agriculture was practically
nonexistent when the cooperativization was under way in our country.
Lenin once said that even a joint economy that merely pools the
peasants’ land and farm implements can achieve an economic
improvement that would be impossible in the individual small peasant
economy; and that the labour productivity and manpower
economization would be doubled or trebled, were a transition to be
made from this scattered individual peasant farming to collective
farming. Our experience has fully confirmed the correctness of Lenin’s
23
proposition. Although the agricultural cooperatives in our country
were organized at a time when agriculture was based on primitive
technology, they fully demonstrated their advantages over the
individual peasant economy and created the conditions for extensively
introducing modern science and technology into this sector.
Moreover, some people were somewhat surprised and alarmed by
the fact that the agricultural cooperative movement developed at an
unprecedented rate and the third type of cooperatives constituted the
overwhelming majority from the outset. This development of the
cooperative movement was, however, a fully law-governed process as
in our country an agrarian reform had been carried out to the letter, the
forces opposing the cooperative movement in the countryside were
weak, while the peasants were politically awakened and further
stimulated by the prolonged revolutionary struggle and especially by
the ordeals of the war, and their economy was in general extremely
fragmented.
Rectifying all these deviations, our Party pressed ahead boldly and
actively with the agricultural cooperative movement, relying firmly on
the Party and revolutionary forces in the rural areas and bringing into
full play the peasants’ growing enthusiasm.
Comrades,
The great success in agricultural cooperativization and the
indestructible vitality of our Party’s agricultural policy based on
Marxist- Leninist principles found vivid expression in the rapid
development of our agriculture during the postwar period.
The most important task confronting agriculture in the postwar
years was to solve the food problem for the population by rapidly
increasing grain output.
For this purpose, our Party took important technical and economic
measures such as widely carrying out irrigation projects, rapidly
increasing the supply of chemical fertilizers and farm machinery and
implements to the countryside and extensively introducing various
advanced farming techniques.
Irrigation and river-bank projects were of decisive significance in
24
raising per-hectare yields and increasing grain production. In the five
years after the war, 57 per cent of the total state investment in
agriculture went into irrigation and river-bank projects. Along with the
large-scale irrigation projects undertaken with state investment, small-
and medium-scale projects have been widely carried out by the
agricultural cooperatives themselves. Thus, during this period we
expanded the area of rice fields under irrigation from 227,000 hectares
to 463,000 hectares. This means that 91 per cent of the total area of rice
fields has been brought under full irrigation. Together with the
expansion of the irrigated area, river-bank and anti-erosion projects
and afforestation work have been extensively carried out and, as a
result, over 350,000 hectares of farmland has been placed under
protection from damage by flood and tidal waters.
In 1958, the supply of chemical fertilizers to the countryside was 12
times greater than that of 1953. The supply of farm machinery and
implements also increased rapidly. At the same time, the network of
farm machine hire stations has been expanded and the number of
tractors (in terms of 15 hp units) expanded to four times its previous
size, with the result that the area of land worked by tractors has
increased twelve-fold.
Under the cooperative economy, new advanced methods of farming
which were actually impossible at the time of the individual peasant
economy have been widely popularized and the distribution of crop
areas further improved on the principle of the right crop for the right
soil. As for rice cultivation, the area under cold-bed rice seedlings,
which produce much higher yields than water-grown seedlings,
accounted for 50 per cent of the total area of rice fields in 1958, and in
cotton cultivation the humus-pot growing method was used on 70 per
cent of the total cotton area. The area planted with maize, a high-yield
crop, was expanded from 236,000 hectares in 1954 to 826,000 in 1958;
and in the same period the utilization of land rose from 125 to 161 per
cent.
Thanks to the superiority of the cooperative economy and to all
these technological measures and the dedicated work of our peasants,
25
grain production in our country has risen continuously and rapidly.
In 1956, grain output already reached 2,870,000 tons, surpassing
the prewar level, and it rose to 3,200,000 tons in 1957 and 3,700,000
tons in 1958. The total grain output in 1958 was almost double the
figure of 1946, the year right after liberation. This is a high yield, the
kind of which our ancestors could not even dream of. It should be
noted that this growth in grain production was achieved under
extremely unfavourable climatic conditions imposed by a long spell of
severe drought.
A number of advanced agricultural cooperatives are yielding still
amazingly larger harvests. The Tuam Agricultural Cooperative in
Kangnam County, South Phyongan Province, harvested an average of
7.5 tons of rice per hectare from 29 hectares of rice fields last year. The
Samryong Agricultural Cooperative in Sunchon County produced an
average of 3 tons of maize per hectare from 422 hectares of land, and
the Wonsa Agricultural Cooperative in Ongjin County, South
Hwanghae Province, raised its per-hectare yield of wheat to a
maximum of 4.5 tons.
There is no doubt at all that if we had not cooperativized
agriculture, we would not have succeeded to take various technical
measures to develop agriculture, and would not have been able to
increase the peasants’ interest in production, and, consequently, we
would not have attained the present level in grain harvest which is an
all-time high in the history of our country.
We have already solved the serious problem of food shortages.
Together with the growth of grain production, the other branches of
agriculture such as industrial crops, animal husbandry, silk raising and
fruit growing have also developed apace. Our cooperative economy
has not only demonstrated its advantages in guaranteeing the rise of
grain production but also played a decisive role in the multi-faceted
development of agriculture.
With regard to cotton, in 1958, the per-hectare yield doubled and
the total output rose three times over that of 1953. The Samjigang
Agricultural Cooperative in Jaeryong County, South Hwanghae
26
Province, reaped a rich cotton crop, an average of two tons per hectare
from 120 hectares of cotton fields, with five hectares producing four
tons each. Great success has also been achieved in the production of
flax, tobacco and other industrial crops.
Regarding animal husbandly, as of September 1, 1958 the total
number of cattle was 30 per cent and pigs 180 per cent higher when
compared with the corresponding figures for the end of 1953. Meat
output increased by 220 per cent in the first five postwar years.
More than 53,000 hectares of land suitable for fruit production has
already been reclaimed in a nationwide struggle to expand the orchard
area by 100,000 hectares during the First Five-Year Plan. In silk
raising, cocoon output reached 8,700 tons in 1958, or 60 per cent more
than the prewar peak level.
Thus, in our country where socialism has triumphed, there has been
an overall upsurge and renovation in grain production and in all other
branches of agriculture in recent years.
The rapid growth of agricultural production has consolidated the
economic foundation of the agricultural cooperatives and speedily
raised the living standard of the cooperative members.
The proportion of joint savings in the cooperatives had been
approximately 5 per cent of their net income up to 1956, but it grew to
some 10 per cent in 1957 and to more than 15 per cent in 1958. This
was made possible by improvement of the cooperative members’
standard of living. Last year, the total value of joint property of our
agricultural cooperatives stood at some 68,600 million won, that is,
an average of 5,150,000 won per cooperative and 65,000 won per
peasant family. This was an average per-family increase of 140 per
cent when compared with 1955. Thus, our agricultural cooperatives
have laid firm foundations to guarantee continuous extended
reproduction.
Every year a large amount of joint savings, a greater amount of
grain for seed and fodder, and grain to be exchanged for fertilizers
were set aside in the cooperatives. But even with all this, the share
allotted to their members increased systematically, as shown here:
27
GROWTH IN SHARE PER FARMING FAMILY
IN THE COOPERATIVE
1955
1956
1957
1958
Grain (kg)
Potatoes (kg)
Cash (won)
1,250
193
5,605
1,616
357
9,542
1,742
434
13,703
1,826
501
20,350
As can be seen from this table, in 1958 each farming family’s share
rose by 50 per cent in grain, 160 per cent in potatoes and more than 260
per cent in cash when compared to 1955.
Poor peasants, who made up roughly 40 per cent of the total
farming families immediately after the armistice, are no longer poor,
and the peasants’ living standard on the whole has reached the level of
the middle peasants.
The mud huts which had been used as dwellings for thousands of
years are being tom down and today our rural villages are being swiftly
transformed into neat, beautiful and modem socialist villages. In the
postwar period, a large number of attractive and convenient modem
houses have been built in the rural areas. Everywhere in our
countryside, schools, clubs, nurseries, kindergartens and clinics have
been erected, and bathhouses, barber shops and laundries have been set
up to serve the collective cultural needs of the cooperative members.
Thanks to the introduction of universal compulsory primary and
secondary education and the further strengthening of adult education,
the peasants’ cultural standard is rising rapidly and technological
knowledge is being disseminated on an ever-widening scale.
A great change is also taking place in the consciousness of the
peasants. The remnants of the old, feudal and capitalist ideologies are
being wiped out and the peasants’ consciousness is being remoulded
along socialist lines.
Our peasants, who have found happiness on the road of socialist
cooperative farming, are firmly determined to defend their priceless
gains. Clearly visualizing a bright future, and in response to the Party’s
28
call they are making progress with redoubled courage and confidence
at the speed of Chollima.
The rapid development of the productive forces, the further
consolidation of the cooperative economy, the speedy improvement of
the peasants’ standard of living and the stimulation of their
revolutionary spirit-all this is the result of the victorious agricultural
cooperativization and the triumphant agricultural policy adopted by
our Party.
Our peasants can take due pride in the great victory and
achievements they have made in the socialist revolution and in the
building of socialism under the guidance of the Party.
Comrades,
Although they were organized under extremely difficult postwar
conditions, and though they are very young and inexperienced, our
agricultural cooperatives have vividly demonstrated their great
advantages.
The system of socialist cooperative economy, however, should not
be allowed to stagnate, but should be developed and further
consolidated.
With the rapid development of the productive forces in agriculture,
the relatively small scale of our agricultural cooperatives became
unsuitable for the further development of the productive forces, ft
hampered the rational utilization of land, improvement in the
organization of labour, diversification of agricultural activities and,
particularly, the mechanization of farming. At the same time, it was
also incompatible with the extensive construction work going on in the
countryside.
It became necessary to enlarge the size of the agricultural
cooperatives through amalgamation so as to successfully carry out the
urgently-needed technical revolution and to further develop the
productive forces. This was an urgent requirement due to the fact that
the agricultural cooperatives had been consolidated, politically and
economically, and due to the fact that the level of leadership and
practical abilities of the management personnel had been enhanced.
29
Our peasants also realized that small-scale cooperatives were
unsuitable, and urgently demanded their amalgamation.
Therefore, last October our Party decided to amalgamate the
agricultural cooperatives in each administrative ri and to nominate the
chairman of the ri people’s committee to hold concurrently the post of
chairman of the cooperative. Although the amalgamation of
cooperatives was a very complicated task, it was smoothly completed
in only one to two months amidst the peasants’ heightened political
enthusiasm.
As a result, the existing 13,309 agricultural cooperatives have been
amalgamated into 3,843 organizations, their average size having
grown from 80 to some 300 peasant families and their cultivated land
area from 130 to 500 hectares.
Tha nk s to the amalgamation of the agricultural cooperatives, we are
now in a position to undertake the full-scale rearrangement of fields,
introduce modem farming machinery and advanced farming
techniques more widely, develop joint farming in a diversified manner
through a more rational utilization of natural and economic conditions,
eliminate the waste of manpower and materials and speed up planned
and extensive rural construction.
At the same time, due to the fact that the ri people’s committee
chairman concurrently assumed the chairmanship of the cooperative,
the local organs of power have become more closely related to
production and it has become possible to further strengthen their role
and functions in the development of the economy and the promotion of
culture.
Simultaneously with the amalgamation of the agricultural
cooperatives, we placed the shops of village consumers’ cooperatives
and credit cooperatives under the direct management of the
agricultural cooperatives. This is of enormous significance in
stimulating the agricultural cooperatives’ interest both in farm
production and in trade and credit, thereby further promoting the
well-being of their members, placing all the economic activities of the
agricultural cooperatives on a planned basis and increasing their
30
independence and initiative. This also represents an important step
towards the strengthening of economic links between towns and the
countryside and the further consolidation of the worker-peasant
alliance.
Thus, in the first five postwar years, we have not only guaranteed
the victory of agricultural cooperativization, but also further
strengthened the cooperatives and pushed them forward onto a new
plane.
Through this struggle, our Party, our peasants and all the people
have acquired valuable experience and learned valuable lessons.
Firstly, our experience clearly shows that the path of agricultural
cooperativization we have taken is the only correct path.
Because we led the individual peasant economy along the road of
socialist cooperative economy, as Marxism-Leninism teaches us, we
could rapidly reconstruct and develop agriculture and improve the
peasants’ living conditions even under such difficult postwar
circumstances. We could also lay foundations for transforming our
countryside in due course into a rich and cultured socialist countryside
equipped with modern technology.
Secondly, our experience shows that the cooperativization of
agriculture is possible even when there are no modem machinery and
technology and when primitive farm techniques prevail, and that an
agricultural cooperative economy has decisive advantages over the
individual peasant economy, even though it is organized on such a basis.
As a result of agricultural cooperativization, we have speedily
reconstructed and developed agriculture and have obtained the
possibility of further accelerating its technological transformation.
Thirdly, the victory of the agricultural cooperative movement
shows that when the Party’s policies are correct, when the Party enjoys
a high respect amongst the masses, and the latter, firmly convinced of
the correctness of its policies through their practical struggle, rise in
unison to implement them, no difficulty is insurmountable and any
task, no matter how arduous and complicated it may be, can be
victoriously fulfilled.
31
The unfaltering leadership of our Party, the boundless trust of the
masses in the Party and their high revolutionary zeal-all this served as
a decisive guarantee for victory in the socialist transformation of
agriculture and is serving as the decisive guarantee for all our victories.
Comrades,
Our countryside has completely extricated itself from the poverty,
stagnation and backwardness of the past, and has undeviatingly taken
the new path of socialist development. Under the guidance of our
Party, our peasants have already been victorious in carrying out the
socialist revolution in the rural areas and have achieved tremendous
success in the course of socialist construction.
But we cannot rest on our laurels and we have no grounds for
complacency whatsoever. We have only just laid the foundation for
developing agriculture on a new and higher plane. The problem is to
radically develop the productive forces of agriculture and further
improve the peasants’ living conditions on this foundation.
Today our basic task in agriculture is to further consolidate the
socialist cooperative economy politically and economically and make
our countryside rich, cultured, socialist and equipped with modem
technology, by carrying out the technical and cultural revolutions
within the next few years.
Building socialism in the countryside not only requires a change in
production relations but also a technological reconstruction of
agriculture and a transformation of the peasants’ consciousness.
Today the technical revolution is the most pressing, principal task
confronting our agriculture. Without equipping agriculture with
modem technology, the highly-developed productive forces
appropriate to a socialist society cannot be attained. The future
development of our agriculture hinges decisively upon its
technological reconstruction. We should radically increase agricultural
production and make work easier by transforming our agriculture
technologically.
Our objective is to build socialism and then communism by further
developing industry and placing agriculture, as we have already done in
32
industry, on modem technological basis. Technological reconstruction
of agriculture will gradually obliterate the distinctions between industry
and agriculture, between towns and the countryside, rapidly raise the
peasants’ technical level and accelerate the transformation of their
ideological consciousness.
As has already been indicated by our Party, the basic content of the
technical revolution in our countryside is irrigation, mechanization and
electrification. We must bring both rice paddies and dry fields under
irrigation, mainly complete rural electrification and mechanize
agriculture.
Today we have every possibility of fulfilling these tremendous
tasks. Our agriculture has been cooperativized, the agricultural
cooperatives have been amalgamated into bigger ones and their
economic foundations have been further consolidated. We now have
our own powerful heavy industry base. Thanks to the correct economic
policy of our Party to give priority to the development of heavy
industry and thanks to the heroic labour of our working class, it has
become possible for our industry to supply the countryside in the future
with a large amount of structural steel and building materials, tractors,
lorries and different types of advanced farm machinery. The problem is
to turn all these possibilities into reality by properly exploiting the
mounting enthusiasm of our peasants.
Irrigation is the basis of the technological transformation of our
agriculture. In our country-where arable land is limited, where
production of paddy rice holds the most important place, and where,
every year, there is a long spell of severe drought plus frequent summer
floods-it would be of decisive significance in raising per-unit-area
yields and increasing agricultural production to establish the irrigation
system in rice paddies and dry fields and prevent flood and drought
damage.
The irrigation of rice fields having been basically completed as a
result of our Party’s consistent measures for the expansion of the
irrigated area, it has become the principal task in this sector to rapidly
establish the irrigation system in the dry fields. While continuously
33
expanding the area of paddies, we must carry out dry-field irrigation on
an extensive scale. Only by so doing can we swiftly increase grain
yields in the dry fields, which make up over two-thirds of the
cultivated area, and further develop the production of industrial crops,
vegetables as well as fruits.
The experience gained last year by the advanced agricultural
cooperatives and state agricultural and livestock farms shows that
when dry fields are irrigated, the per-hectare yield of maize and wheat
could be raised by 100 to 200 per cent, cotton by 200 to 300 per cent
and fruit by 100 per cent. Moreover, the introduction of the dry-field
irrigation system markedly raises the utilization of land and is very
favourable to the progress of comprehensive mechanization.
The September 1958 Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of
our Party proposed the challenging task of establishing an overall
irrigation system in all the cultivated area, excluding steep slopes, by
bringing 700,000 hectares under irrigation and making another
300,000-odd hectares of rice fields fully irrigated in future. This great
programme to improve natural conditions is aimed at making the
ardent desire, cherished for thousands of years by our ancestors, a
reality during our generation.
Immensely inspired by the decision of the Party, our peasants
participated as one movement to implement this programme. Today all
the villages and agricultural cooperatives are undertaking numerous
irrigation projects, tunnelling through mountains, walling up the sea,
and remaking our country’s mountains and rivers. Over 10,000
projects, including the large-scale state-financed irrigation projects in
Kiyang, Ojidon and in the Amnok River basin, are already under way,
and this year 65,000 hectares of rice fields are to be brought under
irrigation. This is proof that the historic cause of irrigation proposed by
our Party is being carried out successfully.
Along with the irrigation projects, the area of protected land
should be further expanded by extensively carrying out projects to
improve river conditions and to prevent soil erosion. Due to the poor
forest and river conservation in our country, it is still a frequent
34
occurrence that farmland is washed away and crops are damaged by
floods.
We should prevent flood damages by improving river conditions,
building banks, creating forest reserves and extensively carrying out
anti-erosion projects. Particularly, in the east coast area which is of ten
hit by floods, the main efforts should be directed to forest and river
conservation, and the irrigation projects should be carried out
simultaneously. In river-bank work, too, the large-scale projects
should be undertaken directly by the state and the small- and
medium-scale projects by the agricultural cooperatives.
Irrigation is a great task for improving natural conditions and part
of a far-reaching plan for the permanent benefit of the state and society.
Therefore, this work should be carried out through a mass movement.
Not only the peasantry but all the people should be mobilized for this
work.
The workers should produce, and deliver on time, cement,
structural steel, timber, various kinds of electric motors, waterpumps,
so on and so forth needed for the irrigation projects.
The office workers, students and soldiers should directly contribute
their own energy to the irrigation projects. Our office workers,
students, soldiers and all the people already have had the rich
experience of giving enormous assistance to the state and peasants by
their voluntary work in postwar irrigation projects. We should also
continue to enlist public labour service on an extensive scale in the
irrigation projects.
The most urgent problem in irrigation projects is the decisive
improvement of the level of mechanization of work at the construction
sites. Without mechanization, the vast projects requiring hundreds of
millions of man-days of labour cannot be carried out.
We have already mechanized most of the work at the Kiyang,
Ojidon and other large-scale state irrigation projects by installing
various kinds of construction machinery. A large amount of
construction machinery including excavators, bulldozers and
conveyors will be supplied to large-scale projects scheduled to be
35
started this year. The state will further step up the mechanization of
irrigation projects by sharply increasing the production of these
construction machines.
It is impossible, however, to supply modem construction
machinery at the same time to the medium- and small-scale irrigation
projects numbering over 10,000 in all. Last year, in South Phyongan
Province, such simple equipment as wooden cranes, pushcarts and
steel-bar cableways were introduced in excavating, piling and
transporting earth. As a result, this sort of work involved in the
irrigation works, expected to be inaugurated this year, had already
been completed by the end of last year, even saving 45,000 man-days
of labour compared with the projected plan. At all irrigation
construction sites a struggle should be waged to save every possible
man-day and make work easier by widely introducing small- and
medium-scale mechanization that can be done without much difficulty.
To economize on labour and materials in irrigation projects,
surveying and designing work should be thoroughly carried out
beforehand. We should correctly choose the sites of work on the
principle of making a rational and comprehensive use of water power
resources, to link several irrigation facilities into a single system, and
see to it that no change is made in installations and waterways in the
course of the work or after its completion. At the same time, the quality
of the work should be further bettered and the irrigation facilities
which have been completed must be used to the maximum.
Along with irrigation, mechanization is important in the rural
technical revolution.
Since the completion of cooperativization, agriculture has been
developed in a diversified way, advanced intensive farming methods
have been introduced extensively, irrigation projects and other
large-scale rural construction works have been carried out and various
transport operations have been sharply increased-all this has put a
strain on the labour force and brought about an acute shortage of
farming machinery and means of transportation in the countryside.
Without mechanization, the problem of manpower in the
36
countryside cannot be solved and our agriculture cannot be developed
any further. The mechanization of agriculture is an important measure
not only for saving manpower but also for making the peasants’ work
easier, for increasing production and reducing the cost of agricultural
produce. It is high time we replaced the outdated, primitive farming
implements which have been used for centuries with modem farming
machinery.
The most important thing in the mechanization of agriculture is to
supply the countryside with the tractors and lorries which we have
already begun to mass-produce. This year we will supply another
5,000 tractors and 2,500 lorries to the farming villages. At least 30,000
to 35,000 tractors and 25,000 to 30,000 lorries are needed for the
mechanization of farming and transport work in our rural areas.
We will satisfy this demand in four to five years by steadily
increasing the output of tractors and lorries. At the same time, we will
produce large quantities of other kinds of advanced farming machinery
and supply them to the rural areas. Thus, fixed-site work such as
threshing and water-pumping will be completely mechanized, and
mobile work such as transport, tilling, planting, and harvesting will
also be considerably mechanized.
In mechanizing agriculture, we must take into consideration that
rice farming accounts for the greater portion of agricultural production,
that the land is hilly and the soil uneven, that such peculiar cultivation
systems as intercropping, mixed cultivation and furrow cultivation are
in practice, and that natural and economic conditions vary widely in
different localities. We must adhere to the principles of gradually
extending mechanization from the plain areas to the mountainous
regions, of going over from mechanization of the most arduous and
labour-consuming work to comprehensive mechanization step by step
and correctly combining big machines with small- and medium-sized
ones, modem mechanization with small, simple mechanization.
The agricultural cooperatives are making use of modem farming
machinery through the state farm machine hire stations. We should
continuously expand these stations and in future, too, push ahead
37
vigorously with the mechanization of agriculture. At the same time, the
agricultural cooperatives should rearrange fields and build roads and
bridges so that tractors and lorries would be able to pass and operate
freely. Mechanized workteams should also be organized.
In farming machinery production, the increase of the number of
tractors requires mass-production of different trailer machines
corresponding to the capacities of different types of tractors and their
accessories and the improvement of their quality. In particular, the
research work on a rice transplanting machine, which is most urgently
needed in our rural areas, should be completed in the shortest time
possible, and various kinds of farming machines suitable to our
countryside-simple, durable and suited for as many kinds of work as
possible-should be manufactured.
To carry out irrigation and mechanization successfully,
electrification must be given priority. Without rural electrification
there can be neither irrigation nor mechanization, nor development of
rural culture.
We have already had considerable success in rural electrification.
Electricity has now been supplied to 67 per cent of all rural ri and 49
per cent of the peasant families in our country. But we need more
electricity for the technological transformation of agriculture. At the
same time, we must see to it that all the villages and peasant families
have electric lighting and cable radio sets. For this purpose, the output
of electricity should be rapidly increased.
Our Party has already clearly defined the basic orientation of the
country’s electrification. We are now constructing large hydroelectric
power stations at Tongnogang, Kanggye and Unbong. We will
continue to build large-scale hydroelectric power stations in future,
and, at the same time, we will construct big thermal power stations as
well.
The most important thing in rural electrification is to build small-
and medium-sized power stations in all parts of the country through a
mass movement. Since these stations can be built easily and quickly
without much expenditure, in all local areas, it is possible to economize
38
greatly on wire and other electric equipment and materials.
Very rich water power and other resources for electricity can be
found all over the country. The enthusiasm for work and the
creativeness of our working people for undertaking electrification are
very great, and many small-sized power stations have been under
construction in different places since September last year. Already 165
power stations have been constructed in South Hamgyong Province,
163 in Jagang Province and 75 in Kangwon Province. As a result, the
electricity supply has been extended to every ri in these provinces.
We should eliminate mysticism about the production of electricity,
and build small- and medium-sized power plants on a large scale
through the active utilization of water power, thermal power, wind
energy, tidal-water power and all other sources of power. Particularly,
by closely linking the construction of power stations in the rural areas
with irrigation and river projects, we should make sure that all
reservoir water generates electricity before it flows into rice paddies
and dry fields and that not a drop of water is wasted.
Electrical machinery factories should produce and supply large
numbers of generators, transformers, electric motors, etc., needed for
the construction of small- and medium-sized power plants.
Irrigation, mechanization and electrification are inseparable and
represent a unified task; they constitute the general line of the technical
revolution in the countryside. We should carry out this magnificent
task in the next few years. Then life-giving water would flow into our
fields and agriculture would be equipped with modem machinery and
technology; every year we would have a bumper crop and the work of
the peasants would become easy and pleasant.
Comrades,
By actively promoting the technological reconstruction of
agriculture we must guarantee a remarkable growth in agricultural
production.
In the past, agriculture in our country was underdeveloped, it
concentrated only on grain production, and still it could not meet grain
requirements in full. We must completely eradicate such backwardness
39
in agriculture and diversify its development.
We must continue to implement our Party’s agricultural policy on
emphasizing grain production and simultaneously developing other
branches of agriculture such as the cultivation of industrial crops,
animal husbandry, silk culture, fruit growing and fresh-water fish
breeding. Thus, we must turn our countryside not only into a powerful
base for food grains but also into a reliable source of raw materials.
The grain problem is one of the most important questions in the
building of socialism. Without decisively increasing grain output, food
cannot be supplied to the population in abundance nor can animal
husbandry and other branches of agriculture be developed.
In our country where the land area is limited, the key to increased
production of grain and other agricultural produce lies in raising
per-unit-area yields by the further development of intensive farming
methods. Engels said, “The productive forces at the disposal of
humanity are immense and the yields of land can be raised infinitely
with the investment of capital, labour and science.” Our country has a
small area of arable land and even that is known to be very poor.
However, if we reform agro-techniques and steadily develop intensive
farming methods, even poor land can be made fertile and harvests
immensely increased even on the small area of land. Intensive
agriculture-this is the key to rich harvests and is our Party’s basic
policy on farming.
Our peasants have already gained rich experience in this field and
have harvested bumper crops which our ancestors could not even have
dreamed about. We should continuously develop intensive farming
methods in order to further raise per-unit-area yields.
The first requisite for a bumper crop is to apply plenty of fertilizer.
We should decisively increase the use of fertilizers and see to it that
they are properly applied in accordance with a scientific system
suitable to the soil and each crop.
Agricultural cooperatives should apply an average of 50 tons or
more of local manure per hectare to all area where crops are cultivated.
To do this, more than 100 million tons of local manure must be
40
produced annually throughout the country. Agricultural cooperatives
must rapidly increase the output of manure by maximum utilization of
all resources such as barnyard manure, compost and peat. This work
should be done through a consistent mass movement.
Besides local manure, more chemical fertilizers should be applied.
The state should further develop the fertilizer industry and endeavour
to supply farming villages with more chemical fertilizers, bringing the
amount applied per hectare up to 800-1,000 kilogrammes and, in
particular, should markedly increase the proportion of phosphatic and
potash fertilizers. Agricultural cooperatives must also build
small-scale fertilizer factories and produce large quantities of
phosphatic and potash fertilizers and lime.
At the same time, the soil survey covering one million hectares of
cultivated area now under way should be completed as soon as possible
and a scientific manuring system should be established on this basis.
The use of select seeds, improved care of rice paddies and dry
fields, prevention of damage by blight and harmful insects have great
significance in raising per-unit-area yields. Every agricultural
cooperative must set up seed plots of its own and further improve and
strengthen the work of securing high-yield select seeds suitable for the
local climatic and soil conditions. We must tend all the rice paddies
and dry fields meticulously as if they were flower gardens and
decisively prevent crop damage by blight and harmful insects through
the applications of agricultural chemicals and various other methods.
The cold-bed rice seedling method and the humus-pot cotton
growing method, which have already proved through experience to be
high-yielding methods of farming, should be widely introduced. All
the agricultural science institutions and agricultural cooperatives must
further strengthen experimental and research work to improve farming
methods. Particularly, the peasants’ enthusiasm and initiative should
be actively stimulated in this regard.
The struggle against conservatism is of decisive significance in
developing agricultural techniques and improving farming methods.
As long as we accept as they are the outdated farming methods handed
41
down from feudal times and continue to cling to them, no progress can
be made in agriculture. We must fight against all manifestations of
conservatism, take the initiative and boldly and actively introduce
advanced farming techniques. Thus, we must bring about a great
change in agricultural science and continuously create new records in
increasing the per-unit-area harvests.
All our agricultural cooperatives and their members must strive to
raise per-hectare grain yields in the near future: paddy rice to 4.5-5
tons, maize to 3-3.5 tons and wheat to 2.5-3 tons. When the per-hectare
yields are raised in this way, over 6 million tons of grain would be
produced.
Then we would be able to supply the working people with rice only
and lay a solid foundation for the development of animal husbandry to
a new level.
This, of course, is a difficult task. But it is by no means a long-term
objective. If all our peasants, upholding the agricultural policy of the
Party, successfully carry out the aforementioned measures for
transforming agricultural techniques and improving farming methods,
this fighting task can certainly be fulfilled.
Along with grain, the production of industrial crops and vegetables
should also be further increased.
With regard to industrial crops, emphasis should be laid on the
cultivation of cotton and other fibre crops and various kinds of
oil-bearing crops; sugar beets, tobacco, insam, hops, etc., should also
be produced in greater quantities.
Today, it is very important for us to solve the problem of raw fibre
materials. In the past, our country had an outdated textile industry
which we could not even supply with raw materials. Now we have
pushed up the level of the textile industry considerably and we also
plan to gradually solve the problem of raw materials on our own
through the production of chemical fibres. We are planning to raise the
annual output of fabrics to 500 million metres within six or seven years
by further developing the textile industry. To guarantee the raw
materials needed for this, the production of cotton and other natural
42
fibres, as well as chemical fibres, should be increased.
With regard to cotton cultivation, we must further raise the per-
hectare yields in order to increase output markedly. At the same time,
flax and hemp should be grown extensively in the mountainous areas
of Ryanggang, Jagang and North Hamgyong Provinces.
In order to supply the working people with enough edible oil, the
agricultural cooperatives should extensively cultivate various kinds of
oil- bearing crops such as peanuts, sunflowers, sesame, wild sesame,
thereby guaranteeing the production of more than 100,000 tons of
edible oil annually in the next few years.
The agricultural cooperatives operating around cities and workers’
districts must expand their facilities for vegetable production and
steadily increase per-unit-area yields so as to keep up a regular supply
of various kinds of fresh vegetables to the workers and office
employees.
The rapid development of animal husbandry is one of the most
important tasks confronting agriculture today. From olden times
Koreans have said that anyone who eats rice and meat soup and lives in
a house with a tiled roof is a rich man. We are now striving to create a
prosperous life for all our working people. For this purpose, we should
supply the population with enough rice and, at the same time, produce
plenty of meat for them.
Today the working people’s demand for meat and other livestock
products is growing rapidly. We must meet this demand by quickly
developing animal husbandry.
To this end, the agricultural cooperatives must develop collective
stockbreeding faster and, on this basis, also develop sideline
stockbreeding by their members.
In order to raise meat output to the level of 25 tons per 100 hectares
of cultivated land, the agricultural cooperatives should direct their
main efforts to the breeding of pigs which are highly productive, while
raising more cattle, chickens, ducks, so on and so forth.
The foundations of animal husbandry should be continuously
strengthened to increase the number of domestic animals: cattle to one
43
million, pigs to 4 million, and sheep and goats to 600,000 or 700,000
respectively in two or three years.
The creation of efficient facilities for fodder production is essential
for the development of stockbreeding. In the next few years, 200,000
hectares of land from the fields where wheat and barley are cultivated
as first-crops, together with some sloping and inferior land, should be
converted into fodder fields. On pasture land, waste land and on the
foothills different varieties of grass should be sown extensively.
Silage and hay should be used as the principal kinds of fodder for
domestic animals. Domestic animals eat and fatten well on silage;
silage can reduce the cost of livestock products much more than any
other feed. All the agricultural cooperatives must produce much silage.
As for pig feed, in particular, a large amount of mixed silage should be
made from immature maize stalks and ears grown after the wheat and
barley harvest.
The accomplishments of the last few years, in raising tussah and
castor silkWorms as well as domesticated silkWorms, have created
excellent conditions for the development of sericulture. We need not
only cotton fabrics but also wool and silk. To weave more silk, we
must develop sericulture.
A variety of delicious fruits grow well in all parts of our country.
We should complete the work of reclaiming 100,000 hectares of land
for orchards within two or three years and expand the fruit-growing
area to 200,000 hectares within the next decade. All hillocks and
village land should be covered with fruit trees. Fruit trees should also
be planted alongside the roads. In this way, we should produce more
fruit and, at the same time, make our homeland more beautiful.
The agricultural cooperatives must raise per- hectare fruit yields to
more than 20 tons within the next few years by widely introducing
advanced methods of fruit growing, by applying more fertilizer and by
constructing efficient irrigation facilities.
The agricultural cooperatives must develop shallow-sea
aquaculture and fresh-water fish breeding on a large scale. This will
provide us with reliable sources of fresh and saltwater products and
44
eliminate the seasonal character of the fishing industry, thereby
ensuring a high and stable production which would satisfy the demand
more fully.
We have favourable conditions for the development of shallow-sea
aquaculture and fresh-water fish breeding. Our country has vast
stretches of shallow sea and tide land along its east and west coasts and
there are lots of reservoirs, lakes and rivers everywhere.
We should turn these favourable natural conditions to good
advantage and rapidly develop aquaculture and fish breeding, thereby
also increasing fresh and salt water products in a decisive manner.
Besides, the agricultural cooperatives must raise bees, gather wild
vegetables and fruit, process foodstuffs and develop all other possible
secondary activities according to their natural and economic
conditions. We should continue to put into effect thoroughly the motto
of our Party to make good use of mountains in mountainous regions as
well as the sea in coastal regions.
Through such a diversified development of agriculture, we would
rapidly increase the profitability of the agricultural cooperatives,
further consolidate their economic foundations and make the peasants’
life prosperous. By producing large quantities not only of grain but
also of various other agricultural produce and sideline products, we
would turn our agriculture into a developed socialist one capable of
meeting the demands of the national economy and the inhabitants.
While guaranteeing a diversified, general development of
agricultural production, the agricultural cooperatives must also direct
great efforts to rural construction. Our Party has proposed the building
of new, modem villages as an important task.
Our agricultural cooperatives have already achieved great results
by carrying out construction work energetically. However, we have not
yet completely changed the old look of the villages, the legacy of
thousands of years of oppression, exploitation and poverty.
The agricultural cooperatives, while laying emphasis on productive
construction, must build lots of new, modem houses and set up more
educational, cultural, public health and public service establishments.
45
We must strive to improve decisively the quality of construction.
Each house and establishment we build should be harmonious with the
happy, socialist life of our peasants. It goes without saying that they
should be convenient for the peasants, attractive, beautiful and durable.
In future, the state will also continue to supply the necessary
materials for rural construction and give technical assistance to the
peasants. At the same time, the agricultural cooperatives must strive to
find and extensively use local materials for rural construction, and
obtain building materials on their own as far as possible. This will
reduce the cost of construction and further increase the speed with
which it is carried out.
We must build our villages more beautifully by rationally
distributing projected houses, cultural and welfare establishments, by
building roads and planting trees. Thus all our villages should be
completely turned into socialist villages.
Comrades,
The cultural revolution has now become an important task in our
countryside. Without staging a cultural revolution, the technical
revolution cannot be carried out in the rural areas, nor can the
triumphant socialist relations of production be consolidated. In
accordance with the actual requirements of socialist construction in the
countryside, we must more actively push ahead with the cultural
revolution.
The most important task in this field at present is to raise the level of
general knowledge and the technological know-how of all the
peasants.
We already introduced compulsory secondary education in
November last year and will introduce universal compulsory technical
education within the next few years. All our younger generation is in a
position to receive a secondary education and will be able to enjoy
technical education as well in the future. The state will also improve
the training of agricultural specialists and technicians by means of
technical colleges and universities. In all schools, education should be
closely combined with production and the younger generation should
46
be brought up to be versatile, able socialist builders.
In the meantime, we must make sure that all agricultural
cooperative members acquire knowledge above that of an elementary
or a junior middle school graduate and also make sure that they all
master a definite technical skill within a few years. For this purpose,
our Party called upon the agricultural cooperatives to set up and run
working people’s schools and middle schools extensively. In
accordance with the Party’s policy these schools have been set up
within the agricultural cooperatives all over the country and numerous
cooperative members are studying in them. We must further strengthen
and develop this work in future. Cooperative members should also be
widely enrolled in correspondence courses and a mass movement for
acquiring new techniques should be launched amongst them.
In this way, all the peasants should become knowledgeable men
with technical know-how and farming skills.
While raising their level of knowledge and technique, the peasants
should remould their life in a cultured way.
We are now living under a progressive socialist system. Our
country has now been transformed from an underdeveloped
agricultural nation into a socialist, industrial-agricultural state. Since
society has made progress and the economy has been developed, the
people should also live a cultured life. We must launch a mass
movement to reform all aspects of our life in a cultured way.
We must put an end to all unhygienic and uncultured practices and
boldly do away with outdated ways of life and customs. By further
improving and strengthening public health and hygienic services in the
countryside, we would eradicate distoma and other endemic and
epidemic diseases, and thoroughly eliminate flies, mosquitoes,
bedbugs, rats, etc. All agricultural cooperative members must keep
their homes and villages more clean and beautiful, bring up their
children better and build an orderly and cultured way of life.
At the same time, we must improve the running of the democratic
publicity halls so that they would become centres of study, education
and cultural recreation for the peasants. We must develop sports,
47
literature and art circles in the countryside on a mass scale.
In order to further consolidate the agricultural cooperatives
politically and accelerate the building of socialism, communist
education should be strengthened amongst the peasants.
Socialist relations of production have already triumphed in our
countryside. But the remnants of feudal and capitalist ideologies left
over from the old society have not yet been completely wiped out from
the minds of the peasants. We must vigorously conduct communist
education amongst the peasants to eliminate the remnants of old
ideologies of every description and to remould their ideological
consciousness.
First of all, we should fully drive home to the peasants the decisive
superiority of the triumphant socialist agricultural cooperative system
over the capitalist farming or individual peasant farming. Thus, we
must lead the peasants in defending this system, in waging a resolute
struggle against those who attempt to restore the exploiting system,
and in firmly safeguarding socialist gains from enemy encroachment.
What is most important in the communist education of the peasants
is to eliminate selfishness and small-proprietor inclinations still found
amongst them. Selfishness is a serious impediment to our progressive
movement.
To successfully build socialism, we must consolidate and further
develop collective ownership, i.e., socialist ownership, in the
countryside. And for building communism in future, collective
ownership should be turned into ownership by the whole people.
Without eliminating selfishness, this process cannot be accelerated.
We must educate every cooperative member in the spirit of taking
loving care of common property, of respecting the interests of the state
and society and subordinating individual interests to them, and of
comradely mutual assistance in the community. The common property
and collective economy of the cooperatives are the basis for their
development and the source of an improved standard of living for the
cooperative members. A resolute struggle should be waged against
misappropriation, squandering and embezzlement of common
48
property and against insincere participation in collective farming.
At the same time, we must educate all the cooperative members in
the spirit of love for work.
Work is the noblest endeavour and all the wealth of human society
is created by the labour of the working people. Today our peasants are
working not for landlords or capitalists, but for their own happiness
and for the interests of our country and society. Under our system,
labour is the highest honour and solemn duty for everyone. It is a
socialist principle that he who does not work shall not eat. It is very
shameful to hate work, to loaf about and live at the expense of others.
We must cultivate a correct attitude towards work amongst all the
cooperative members, so that they would love to work and earnestly
join in collective work and voluntarily observe discipline in their work.
We must also arm the peasants firmly with the ideas of socialist
patriotism and proletarian internationalism.
Socialist patriotism must emanate from a love for one’s
cooperative. Our peasants must all become ardent patriots who love
their socialist homeland.
Moreover, we must further strengthen the education of the peasants
in proletarian internationalism so that, motivated by the love of their
socialist homeland, they would be able to defend the socialist camp
and promote friendship and solidarity with the peoples of this camp
and with all the working people of the world aspiring to embrace
socialism.
To guarantee success in socialist construction, the worker-peasant
alliance must be further strengthened. This alliance is the foundation
for the solidarity of all the people and a decisive factor for the victory
of the revolution.
In our country, the worker-peasant alliance stood the severe test of
the war and in the course of the socialist revolution it has developed on
to a new plane. In carrying out the technical and cultural revolutions in
the countryside, we must further consolidate the worker-peasant
alliance and advance the leading role of the working class in this
alliance by further strengthening the leadership and assistance given by
49
the working class to the peasants and by promoting the development of
agriculture and the remoulding of the consciousness of the peasants.
Comrades,
The administrative and management work of the agricultural
cooperatives should be improved and the guidance and assistance by
the Party and the state to the cooperatives should be further
strengthened for the successful implementation of the huge tasks
confronting agriculture and for the political and economic
consolidation of the cooperative economy.
Now that agricultural cooperativization has been completed and
now that the agricultural cooperatives have been amalgamated and
have entered a new stage of development, this congress will adopt the
new Standard Rules of the Agricultural Cooperatives.
The basic objective of the draft Standard Rules consists of leading
all our agricultural cooperatives and their members in the fight to
consolidate the victories of socialism already achieved in the
countryside under the leadership of the working class, and to accelerate
socialist construction.
The new Standard Rules are the fruit of the protracted struggle of
our peasants for land and freedom, a mirror showing the norms of their
collective life and a lighthouse illumining a still brighter future for
them. We must further improve the administration and management of
the amalgamated agricultural cooperatives so that they would
proficiently fulfil their tremendous tasks in accordance with the basic
principles of the new Standard Rules.
Now that the members of the cooperatives have sharply increased
and the scope of their work has expanded, a greater development of
internal democracy is the key to their consolidation. We must enlist
the masses of cooperative members in management so that they
would be able to freely advance their views as masters of the
cooperatives, to criticize shortcomings and, united firmly in thought
and purpose, to demonstrate greater activity and creativity in all their
work.
We must see to it that the bureaucratic style of work still found
50
amongst some management workers of the cooperatives is eliminated
once and for all and that they acquire the revolutionary popular
viewpoint of doing their work by relying upon the masses and going
amongst them to learn from them and teach them. All questions should
be collectively discussed and decided through the regular work of
members’ general meetings, conferences and the management board
meetings. Details about the work of the cooperative and how its
property is being managed should be made known to the members in
good time.
As our experience shows, the improvement of the political level
and practical ability of the management workers is of tremendous
importance in consolidating the cooperatives. Although the ranks of
management workers have been further strengthened through the
amalgamation, their level still falls short of the requirements of the
tremendous tasks they have to undertake.
All management workers, particularly the chairmen, must
constantly strive to have a comprehensive knowledge not only of the
organization and techniques of agricultural production but also of
trade, credit, education, culture, public health, so on and so forth, and
to be well acquainted with the internal life of the cooperatives. The
Party and the Government will continue to give help to further
strengthen the work of training and re-educating the management
workers and raising their political level and practical ability.
Our agricultural cooperatives come under the category of a large-
scale socialist economy. Needless to say, such an economy cannot be
managed without planning. Particularly in the new situation which
now prevails, the significance of planning has grown immensely.
All the cooperatives’ economic activities should be planned-from
production to distribution, trade and consumption-and education,
culture and public health services should also be developed in a
planned way. To ensure success in the technological reconstruction of
agriculture, including the vast projects to improve natural conditions,
and in the work of rural construction, and to develop the cooperative
economy in a far-sighted way, every agricultural cooperative must
51
devote particularly great attention to the work of scientific, long-term
planning.
The agricultural cooperatives must work out their production and
construction plans so as to guarantee the greatest results with a small
expenditure of manpower, materials and funds by exploring their
reserves and exploiting their potentialities to the maximum.
The agricultural cooperatives must give profound attention to the
maintenance of a proper ratio of accumulation and consumption to
guarantee steady extended reproduction and systematic improvement
of their members’ standard of living.
We must eliminate both the tendency of undertaking construction
thinking only of the future while ignoring the present living conditions
of the cooperative members, and the tendency to consume all that is
earned without paying regard for tomorrow, without caring for the
future development of the collective economy and the economic
foundation of the cooperatives.
In this issue, our principle is to give equal attention to both
accumulation and consumption, gradually increasing the former as the
living standard of the cooperative members improves. Only by
increasing accumulation can we steadily and soundly improve the
material and cultural life of the cooperative members. The joint
accumulation of the agricultural cooperatives should be further
increased in order to ensure the fulfilment of the technical revolution
and carry out the enormous construction of production and cultural
facilities in the countryside. Every year, each agricultural cooperative
should determine the rate of accumulation within the limits provided
for in the Standard Rules, taking into account its own specific
conditions.
The joint accumulation fund shall be used by the agricultural
cooperatives to buy modem machinery for the expansion of production
and to build production and cultural facilities and dwellings; this fund
constitutes the main means for increasing the common property of the
cooperative. In future, the achievements of an agricultural cooperative
should be assessed not only by the amount of profits and products
52
distributed to its members, but by the amount of its joint accumulation
and the volume of its capital construction.
The cooperatives’ common property, which would increase
continuously with the growth of the joint accumulation, should be
managed carefully and utilized more effectively for the development
of the collective economy and the improvement of the well-being of
the cooperative members.
Improved organization of work and rational use of labour have now
become a particularly important problem for the agricultural
cooperatives. Every cooperative must reorganize its workteams in a
rational way to suit the new situation and further increase the rate of
participation in community labour by all its members. We must
thoroughly eliminate labour wastage which is caused by frequent
transfers of people from one workplace to another, or by the failure to
provide proper working conditions and to give assignments promptly.
At the same time, socialist emulation-spirited drives should be
vigorously launched amongst sub-workteams, workteams and
cooperatives so that worthwhile achievements and experiences would
be widely disseminated and more innovations made without
interruption in building the economy and in promoting culture.
The agricultural cooperatives must show close concern for the
everyday life of their members.
Wasteful habits that may appear amongst cooperative members as a
result of the rapid increase in their incomes must be eliminated; the
members should be guided towards building their lives well. We must
also give attention to providing labour protection to cooperative
members and guarantee them regular rest and sufficient sleep. In
particular, conditions must be provided for lightening the burden of
household chores for women, and for protecting and bringing up their
children better. For this purpose, nurseries, kindergartens, laundries,
sewing shops, so on and so forth should be run well.
Now that agricultural cooperativization has been completed and the
size of the cooperatives enlarged, the guidance and assistance that the
Party and the state give them should be further strengthened.
53
From this year onwards, we are going to cut down the rate of
agricultural tax in kind, which ranged from 10 to 27 per cent of the
average yearly harvest in the past, to approximately 12 per cent. In
particular, we are planning to exempt completely from this tax some
agricultural cooperatives in mountainous areas whose economic
foundations are still weak.
Today when agricultural production is increasing year after year,
such a sharp reduction in the rate of the tax in kind will be of great
economic benefit to the agricultural cooperatives. This will remarkably
increase the accumulation of the cooperatives, and, as a result, will be a
great help in furthering the technical transformation of agriculture and
rural construction, in giving support to backward cooperatives and in
consolidating their economic foundations, and in improving the living
conditions of the peasants.
We must further enhance the role of Party and government bodies
at all levels and that of leading agricultural officials in ensuring the
development of agriculture and consolidating the cooperative
economy.
Recently our Party has adopted a series of measures to increase the
rural guidance forces of the provincial, city and county people’s
committees and to expand their authority. This is of great significance
in bringing guidance closer to production in keeping with the new
realities in the countryside, and in promoting local initiative and
mobilizing production reserves and potentialities.
In the work of guidance in the rural areas, we must do away with
formalism and further strengthen the system of on-the-spot guidance.
Particularly, we must concentrate our efforts on providing guidance to
those agricultural cooperatives whose economic foundations are still
weak, so that they would be able to stand on their own feet as soon as
possible. All the leading agricultural officials must thoroughly
implement our Party’s agricultural policy by combining their guidance
with the revolutionary zeal of the masses and by further strengthening
the unity of the Party and the masses.
In particular, the work of the Party organizations in the agricultural
54
cooperatives should be strengthened to ensure our Party’s leadership in
rural work.
The Party organizations in the agricultural cooperatives must fully
explain and drive home the Party’s policies to the broad sections of the
masses, energetically mobilize them for the struggle to implement
them and enhance the vanguard role of the Party members in this
struggle.
The Party organizations should overcome the tendency of
cooperatives to harbour old narrow-minded self-centred attitude and to
indulge in nepotism which is still liable to be manifested under
conditions where the production forces in several villages have been
merged into one cooperative, and further strengthen the ideological
unity and cooperation of the cooperative members.
They must strengthen their leadership and control over the
management work and economic activities of the agricultural
cooperatives.
They must intensify their work amongst the bereaved families of
patriots and the families of soldiers in the cooperatives, take constant
care of their living conditions and the education of their children, and
help them in every way so that they would be able to play a central role
in the affairs of the cooperatives.
Moreover, they must also give great attention to the work of the
Democratic Youth League and other working people’s organizations.
The Democratic Youth League members, the reserve force of the
Party, are playing the role of a shock brigade in the socialist
construction in our country. The Party organizations must give
correct guidance to the Democratic Youth League organizations,
intensify the communist education of the youth, steadily improve
their technical and cultural level and thus lead the young people to
devote themselves to socialist construction in the countryside with all
their talent and revolutionary ardour as valiant fighters for their
country and people.
Thus, we must develop all the agricultural cooperatives into
socialist cooperatives with solid economic foundations, whose
55
members are well-off, and which are politically sound. In this way we
should make our Party’s rural position impregnable.
Comrades,
In sharp contrast with economic conditions in south Korea, socialist
construction in the northern half of Korea is progressing in a situation
where our country is divided into two parts. Today the south Korean
economy is sinking ever deeper into the quagmire of bankruptcy.
The only results of the 13-year rule of south Korea by the US
imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique are the bankruptcy of the
national economy, the impoverished people’s living conditions,
ignorance, darkness and degeneration.
The majority of the factories and mills in south Korea are small-
and medium-sized enterprises and, on top of that, some 80 per cent of
them have suspended or reduced their operations. Today in south
Korea, there are more than 4,200,000 unemployed persons wandering
the streets. The wages of the employed workers are equivalent to no
more than one-third of the minimum living costs; and, to make matters
worse, the workers’ pay is kept in arrears for months.
Whereas our socialist cooperative farming is making rapid
progress, agriculture in south Korea is still in colonial and semi-feudal
shackles and its productive forces are being seriously undermined
every day.
The cultivated area of south Korea has shrunk by 600,000 hectares
and the total grain output by 40 per cent as compared with the years
under Japanese imperialist rule. South Korea, which used to produce
twice as much grain as north Korea in the days of Japanese
imperialism, now produces even less grain than the northern half of
Korea.
South Korea, once known as a granary, has turned into an area of
chronic famine and nearly half of all the peasant households have run
out of food. The majority of south Korean peasants have become
tenant farmers or hired hands who do not have a patch of land of their
own, or wanderers who have left their native villages to go begging.
In spite of all this, the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique
56
have allotted about 70 per cent of their budget for military and police
expenditure and are not showing the least concern for the
reconstruction of agriculture. They are resorting to every possible
means to squeeze the last drop of sweat and blood out of the south
Korean peasants.
All this is an inevitable outcome of the predatory colonial policy of
the US imperialists.
The only way out lies in expelling the US imperialist aggressors
and bringing about the reunification of the country.
The south Korean peasants now realize more clearly that under the
rule of the US imperialists and the treacherous Syngman Rhee clique
they cannot obtain land or freedom, nor can they extricate themselves
from their present indescribably wretched plight.
The greater the achievements of socialist construction in our
countryside and the better the life of our peasants, the more it will
inject courage and hope in the south Korean peasants who are
languishing under oppression and exploitation and suffering from
hunger and cold. To save their compatriots in south Korea, our
peasants must further develop agriculture and build socialism better.
Socialist construction in the northern half of Korea constitutes a
decisive guarantee for the peaceful reunification of our country, and it
will provide a powerful material foundation for rapidly reconstructing
the economy of south Korea and improving the living conditions of the
people there after the country is reunified.
As time passes, the socialist forces in the northern half of Korea
will become stronger and the revolutionary awakening of the south
Korean people will be further stimulated. No force can prevent the
growth of the revolutionary forces of the Korean people aspiring to the
reunification of the country and nation. The day will surely come when
all our fellow countrymen will be enjoying a free, prosperous and
happy life together in a unified land.
Today socialism is registering victories on a worldwide scale and
the imperialist forces are being hurried to their doom.
The socialist camp is incomparably stronger than the imperialist
57
camp, encompassing a vast area comprising more than one-fourth of
the land surface of the globe, and embracing a population of nearly
1,000 million which is twice as large as that of the imperialist
countries.
The Soviet Union has made tremendous, world-shaking
achievements in economic, scientific and technological development,
and has gradually begun to get the upper hand of the United States. The
Soviet Union has now opened up a new era in the history of the
development of science by launching three artificial earth satellites. At
the beginning of the new year, the Soviet Union again launched a space
rocket to the moon. This demonstrates the decisive superiority of
socialism over capitalism and helps to fortify further the confidence of
the progressive people of the whole world in a future built on
communism.
In all the People’s Democracies, socialism is being successfully
built, national economies are being rapidly developed and the people’s
living standard is improving continuously.
At present, the countries in the socialist camp account for one-third
of the world’s industrial output and will be producing more than
one-half in the next seven years.
Under the banner of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian
internationalism, the countries in the socialist camp have become more
firmly united.
All this demonstrates the invincible might of the socialist camp
which is prevailing over the imperialist forces.
The general situation is developing more and more in favour of our
just cause.
By marching forward shoulder to shoulder with the peoples of the
fraternal countries, our people will triumphantly build socialism in our
country and will definitely accomplish the reunification of our country.
Thus, our people will be making a further contribution to the
consolidation of peace and the positions of socialism in the Far East
and the world at large.
Together with the working class, our peasants are entrusted with
58
this honourable cause. The work of our peasants for the further
development of agriculture is a struggle for socialist construction in the
northern half of Korea and, at the same time, a struggle for the peaceful
reunification and prosperity of the country.
I am firmly convinced that all the peasants of our country, rallying
still more closely around our Party and under its leadership, will
victoriously carry out the magnificent task which now confronts
agriculture.
59
FOR THE SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION
OF IMMEDIATE TASKS OF AGRICULTURE
Concluding Speech at the National Congress
of Agricultural Cooperatives
January 9, 1959
During the last few days, we have done a great job which will be
recorded in the history of our country.
At this National Congress of Agricultural Cooperatives we have
analysed the brilliant victory achieved in completing socialist
agricultural cooperativization in a few years despite the fact that it had
been considered to be so difficult. We have also discussed very
important tasks for the future development of agriculture.
All the delegates have fully supported and approved the vast tasks
proposed by the Party Central Committee for the further development
of our agriculture and made a firm resolution to fulfil them.
The congress has captured the attention of all the peasants and the
rest of the people, and the delegates have demonstrated unanimous
resolve and enthusiastic spirit. This vividly shows once again how
ardently our people love and trust the Central Committee of the
Workers’ Party of Korea-their heart and brain-and how firmly they
are united around the Central Committee.
I am very satisfied that the congress is concluding its work with a
great success.
On behalf of the Party Central Committee, I would like to express
my warm gratitude to all the delegates, and all the members of
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agricultural cooperatives who sent you to the congress to represent
them.
On behalf of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea
and this congress, I also would like to sincerely thank the delegates
from many fraternal socialist countries for their participation in this
congress. Their presence has been an inspiration to us; they regard our
people’s work as their own and rejoice over our victory as if it were
their own, giving active support and encouragement to us.
The success we achieved at this congress is enormous and very
valuable. However, we cannot rest on our laurels.
At this congress we established the correct policy for the further
development of our agriculture. It is wrong to think that all the work
will go smoothly now that we have adopted a declaration or a
resolution and put forward a new policy. After establishing a new
policy we should strive to implement it. Putting a policy into practice is
more difficult than proposing it.
All the peasants and the rest of the people should never be satisfied
with the achievements; they should strive more strenuously and
energetically to carry out the important tasks put forward by the Party
Central Committee and accorded unanimous support and approval by
this congress.
In carrying out these tasks, lots of difficulties may be encountered.
But they would shrink to insignificance when compared with those
difficulties we met immediately after the armistice when we had to
reconstruct factories and dwelling houses on the ruins with barehands,
without a piece of brick, a gramme of cement or steel. As we did then,
we would be able to overcome the new difficulties easily.
On our way forward in the future there will be difficulties, but they
will fully be overcome. I am confident that our people, who have gone
through great difficulties and hardships in the past, will boldly tackle
whatever problems they may meet in future.
As our experience shows us, no obstacles are insurmountable as
long as all the people work hard, relying firmly on Party policy and
rallying closely around the Party Central Committee. When they
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remain true to the Party and vice versa, and the Party and the people
unite as one movement as they did in the past, victory will always be
ours.
To consolidate the agricultural cooperatives politically and
economically and to carry out successfully the technical and cultural
revolutions in the immediate future, thus making ours a wealthy,
cultured and developed socialist countryside equipped with modem
technology-this is an important task our Party sets before the
agricultural sector.
In its letter addressed to all the members, the Party Central
Committee has already called upon the peasants to accelerate the
technical and cultural revolutions in rural areas and make efforts to
increase agricultural production. This congress, too, made emphasis on
this issue.
In order to thoroughly implement the tasks for agricultural
development put forward at the congress, we should, first of all, drive
home to the peasants the decision adopted here so that all of them
would have a correct understanding of what is required and strive for
its implementation.
What is important in performing these tasks is to maintain the high
spirit of peasants and increase agricultural production rapidly.
According to our experience over several years, there is no special
way to increase agricultural production quickly. All we have to do is to
correctly implement our Party’s policies.
In order to increase agricultural production as soon as possible, we
should first expand irrigation facilities in accordance with the Party’s
consistent policy.
As pointed out in the report to the congress, in the future we should
increase areas under irrigation to one million hectares and prevent
damages from flood and droughts by undertaking effective
afforestation and water conservation projects. In this way farming
would become free from the effects of natural calamities. For this
purpose we should keep expanding the area of paddy fields, while
extensively carrying out irrigation projects for non-paddy fields.
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Besides, we should further expand the area of protected land by
conducting projects to improve river conditions and to prevent soil
erosion on an extensive scale.
To follow up the present success in irrigation and river conditions
improvement, we should actively introduce mechanization in these
projects. In this way we will be able to increase labour productivity,
guarantee the quality of the projects and complete them ahead of
schedule.
Along with expanding the irrigation facilities, the mechanization of
agriculture should be accelerated.
Without equipping agriculture with modem machines we would
never be in a position to develop its productive forces, or increase its
production radically. Therefore, we set as an important task the
equipping of agriculture with up-to-date machinery and doing all
farming work with machines.
This not only saves manpower but also increases agricultural
production and lowers the cost of farm produce. Moreover, work
would be carried out with ease.
Conventional farming implements should be replaced with
up-to-date machines on an extensive scale. Rural mechanization
should be promoted in this direction: to gradually expand
mechanization from plain areas to mountainous areas, to begin with the
most arduous and labour-consuming work and go over to
comprehensive mechanization by degrees, and to properly combine
large-sized machines with medium- and small-sized equipment.
The quality of soil should be continuously ameliorated.
Under the conditions of our country, it is more important for us to
improve land now under cultivation than to reclaim new land. Our
country has a proverb: “There is no bad land for a diligent farmer.” It
means that an industrious peasant can transform bad into good land. To
make all arable land fertile, we should conduct detailed land surveys
and, on their basis, set up a scientific system of fertilization.
An efficient use of land is of great significance in increasing grain
production in our country which has limited arable land.
63
In order to use land better and to increase grain output, we should
extensively introduce the multiple-crops methods. Particularly
important is the development of intensive farming.
What is basic to intensive farming is to plough the fields deep, plant
crops close together and to apply a lot of fertilizer. In order to increase
grain yields this year through this method, we should make good
preparations for farming as from now. For the present, a mass
movement should be launched to produce plenty of home-made
manure.
This year the state should produce large quantities of various
chemical fertilizers suitable to soil conditions and the peculiarities of
different crops.
In the intensive farming method, the peasants should plough paddy
and non-paddy fields deep, plant crops close together and properly
combine manure and chemical fertilizers that must be applied, thus
bringing about a decisive increase in the yields of agricultural produce.
They should steadily improve the quality of seeds, prevent damages
from blights and harmful insects and till the fields carefully like a
flower garden.
Then we will be able to produce much grain in smaller areas of land
and successfully carry out the task of producing more than seven
million tons of grain in the immediate future.
Animal husbandry should be developed as soon as possible.
From old times, the Koreans have regarded as rich people those
who live in a house with a tiled roof and eat rice and meat soup. Poor
peasants have envied such a life and dreamed to live likewise. If we try
hard today, we can lead all the people into enjoying such a life.
If we make paddies fully irrigated and introduce intensive farming
to increase grain output quickly as planned this year, everyone will be
able to eat rice next year or the year after.
However, the people will not be satisfied to live on rice alone. They
should be served with meat, too. As life improves, they would want to
eat more meat. In order to meet their demand, we should develop
livestock farming and increase meat production quickly.
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At present, the foundations of our livestock farming are very weak.
Therefore, agricultural cooperatives and their members should exert
much more effort to develop this line of activity.
What requires special attention in animal husbandry is to develop
Korean cows into milch cows so as to produce a lot of milk. In the past,
our peasants only exploited Korean cows and slaughtered them when
they became old. They did not know how to produce milk from Korean
cows. Breeding Korean cows would give us many advantages. We can
use them as draught or milch cows. With the mechanization of farming
in the future, many cows can be used as milch cows, not as draught
animals.
After the September Plenary Meeting of the Party Central
Committee held last year, experiments were conducted in different
areas, with the result that it was established that a Korean cow could
produce one to two tons of milk or three tons to the maximum a year.
In case of a Korean cow producing one to two tons of milk, turning
one hectare of dry fields into a base to feed four or five cows with
fodder would be much better than producing grain in the fields. If
agricultural cooperatives in mountainous areas develop Korean cows
into milch cows well, their members would raise their living
standard quickly.
Large numbers of Korean cows should be developed into milch
cows. Only those Korean cows which produce plenty of milk should
.be chosen for this purpose. Cooperatives should undertake this work
extensively.
To increase milk production cows must be given good feed. There
are many resources of quality feed in rural areas. When we go out to
the countryside in winter, we find that maize stalks have been left
abandoned in the fields. This is tantamount to throwing away meat
and milk. If maize stalks are cut in time to make silage, they would
provide good feed for cows or pigs. If we feed cows with silage, they
would fatten well and produce a lot of milk. It is, after all, the same as
exchanging maize stalks for meat and milk. However, this work to
date is not organized properly. Of course, rural officials still have no
65
experience in this. But it does not mean that they cannot do such
work. Our peasants introduced cold-bed rice seedlings although they
had no previous experience in it. They created this method through
practice.
If they strive to utilize all their wisdom, the peasants will be fully
capable of exploiting their potential for developing livestock farming.
While working very hard to increase grain production, agricultural
cooperatives should develop livestock farming quickly, enlisting every
existing potentiality and possibility. Thus, they should reach the target
of annually producing without fail 400,000 tons of meat and 460,000
tons of milk within two or three years.
They should diversify agriculture, taking proper account of their
natural and economic conditions.
The living standard of some agricultural cooperative members in
mountainous regions is still lower than that in plain areas. However, as
many comrades said during the sectional meetings, the former can live
as well as the latter by making a good use of natural and economic
conditions to improve economic management. Agricultural
cooperatives in mountainous regions should not try to produce
low-yield maize for provisions, but should cut maize stalks with ears
before they fully ripen and turn them into silage to produce meat. Then,
they will be able to earn a large income. On top of this, if they breed
Korean cows into becoming milch cows, they would be able to earn
additional income.
For a long time, our Party has emphasized that mountains should be
taken into good account in mountainous regions, while the sea in
regions bounded by sea.
What does it mean by utilizing a mountain well? It means
developing various kinds of secondary activities such as planting
orchards, raising bees, picking edible herbs and breeding domestic
animals on the mountain. In Ryanggang and other provinces, many
agricultural cooperatives in mountainous areas have gained useful
experience in diversifying their economy by taking advantage of
mountains. This good experience should be disseminated so that all the
66
cooperatives in such areas would learn how to make a better utilization
of mountains.
The coastal agricultural cooperatives should increase their incomes
by catching fish, breeding shellfish and oysters, cultivating seaweed
and the like on an extensive scale in the shallow sea.
In order to implement the Party’s agricultural policy correctly, we
must take into account the characteristic features of local areas. If the
Party’s policy is executed formally and mechanically without taking
the local features into consideration, no success would be made
however correct the policy might be.
Take Ryanggang Province for instance. They failed to implement
the Party’s policy on planting crops in accordance with the principle of
the right crop for the right soil as conditioned by local features. In
mountainous areas of Ryanggang Province which they call the nearest
place to the sky, even if they plant maize as the main crop, it would not
grow well. But when the Party proposed the slogan, “Maize is the king
crop for dry fields,” some leading personnel of this province
encouraged maize cultivation in their province too, blindly haiping on
this slogan without any consideration of their climate and soil
conditions. Moreover, they even went as far as to transform non-paddy
fields into paddy fields and tend cold-bed seedlings eagerly with the
intention of growing the rice crop. To say nothing of rice, even maize
would not grow well in Ryanggang Province. As the leading personnel
were not able to guide farming properly to meet the Party’s intentions,
many agricultural cooperatives in this province have failed to obtain a
good result for several years.
Even agricultural schools in Ryanggang Province have so far been
teaching the students how to grow cold-bed rice seedlings and how to
carry on irrigation work despite the fact that this has nothing to do with
their province’s reality. But they did not teach them how to cultivate
potato and flax which would grow well there. What is the use of
learning about the cold-bed rice seedlings at the foot of Mt. Paekdu
where rice would never produce a good harvest? Such a mechanical
method of work should be remedied.
67
We studied the farming situation in Ryanggang Province and saw to
it that not maize but potato was planted extensively. To tell the truth, in
this province the king crop for dry fields is not maize but potato. Last
year, a large quantity of potatoes were grown throughout Ryanggang
Province, with the result that agricultural production increased
considerably and supplies for one and a half year to two years were
stored. Besides, they planted flax in large quantities according to the
principle of the right crop for the right soil, thus giving great help to
solving the fibre problem in the country and increasing the incomes of
the peasants significantly.
Today the living standard of inhabitants in Ryanggang Province has
improved on the whole. This shows that recently Party organizations in
the province attained a correct understanding of the Party’s agricultural
policy and implemented it diligently.
Leading personnel in the agricultural sector should exactly grasp
the quintessence of the Party’s policy and strive to implement it
correctly in a manner which is suitable to specific local conditions.
In order to perform successfully the important tasks of the technical
revolution in agriculture, it is necessary to strengthen the
working-class support.
The main tasks of the technical revolution in our rural areas at
present are to bring about irrigation, mechanization and electrification.
Without the strong support of the working class, these tasks cannot be
successfully done.
As our working class volunteered to help the peasants in the past, so
should they give active assistance to them in the future. The workers
and technicians, in particular, should produce machines and materials
needed for the rural technical revolution and forward them to the
countryside in good time, and go out there to instruct peasants in the
necessary-technology.
On the other hand, the peasants should actively support the working
class, a leading class, who always guide them on the right track and
help them. For this purpose, they should produce much more grain and
industrial crops to supply enough provisions and materials for
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industry, and strive to raise their quality and lower their costs.
When the working class and the peasantry help each other in this
way, the worker-peasant alliance, the basis of our people’s
government, would be further consolidated.
Finally, I would like to make a few remarks on the need to
strengthen the work of the management boards of agricultural
cooperatives and Party organizations in the cooperatives.
Our agriculture has now been completely transformed on socialist
lines.
In the old days of private farming the peasants were responsible for
their own lives. Now that agricultural cooperativization has been
completed, however, the cooperatives must assume the responsibility
for the peasants’ well-being. In other words, the livelihood of peasants
must be placed under the responsibility of the management boards
which run the cooperatives and also under the responsibility of the
Party organizations which lead the cooperatives. Therefore, the duties
of the management boards and their respective Party organizations are
of great importance. If these boards and Party organizations work well,
the cooperatives would develop rapidly and succeed to consolidate the
foundations of production and improve the peasants’ well-being. On
the contrary, if they fail to work properly, the peasants would be
subjected to hardship. Therefore, the members of management boards
and Party committees of the cooperatives should work enthusiastically,
very much aware that their responsibility is great.
Since an agricultural cooperative is organized with ri as a unit and
grows in size, its work may be more difficult and complex than before.
So the management and Party workers of the cooperatives should work
more energetically than before, go amongst the masses to learn from
them and teach them, and always work in unison with them. And they
should study hard how to develop the cooperative economy and make
efforts to promptly introduce advanced science and technology. They
should also fight resolutely against all sorts of unsound practices which
interfere with the work of the cooperatives.
Democratic principles should be fully manifested amongst the
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cooperative members so that they would be able to participate in the
management of the cooperatives as masters and give full play to
creative zeal in all work.
The chairmen and other officials of the management and Party
committees of the cooperatives should make strenuous efforts to raise
their level of farming know-how and practical abilities. Without doing
so, the management and Party workers would not be able to work
properly in accordance with the requirements of the masses. That is
why they should always learn and learn.
Face to face with the enemies, today we are building socialism.
They scheme to destroy our socialist construction by sending spies,
subversive elements and saboteurs to conspire with corrupt elements
lurking in our ranks. The greater our success, the more our enemies
will feel uneasy and plot to undermine it viciously. Therefore, we
should always heighten our revolutionary vigilance and strive to
defend our socialist gains firmly from enemy encroachment.
I am confident that all our peasants, rallying more firmly around the
Party Central Committee, would keep on making strenuous efforts
without losing any of their high spirit of enthusiasm and thus win new
victories in socialist rural construction and agricultural production and,
furthermore, make a great contribution to accelerating the country’s
peaceful reunification.
70
FOR KOREAN COMPATRIOTS
IN JAPAN REPATRIATION IS THEIR
LEGITIMATE NATIONAL RIGHT
Talk to the Chief Director of the Japan-Korea Society
January 10, 1959
I would like to express my thanks to you for your visit to our
country and for your innumerable activities to promote world peace.
You have made a great effort to strengthen friendship between the
Korean and Japanese peoples. I appreciate your effort.
It is excellent that many people are now working for peace as you
are. We hope the ranks of the champions of peace, like you, would
continue to grow.
It is desirable that the Korean and Japanese peoples continue to
promote friendship through mutual visits. Japan is a neighbour of our
country. As neighbours the two peoples ought to live in harmony, not
in discord. It was not the Japanese people, but the Japanese imperialists
whom our people opposed in the past. Even now the Korean people
regard the Japanese militarists, not the Japanese people, as their
enemy.
The Japan-Korea Society has made a great effort to normalize the
diplomatic relations between the two countries. You need not feel
sorry that these relations have not been established. This question will
be settled in due course. Since the Japanese government at present is
taking an unfriendly attitude towards our country diplomatic relations
between the two countries are impossible. And under these
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circumstances such relations, even if established, would be useless.
Establishing diplomatic relations is not an urgent question. What
matters is to develop the friendly relations between the two peoples.
Diplomatic relations are not a must for the establishment of
friendly relations between peoples; the latter does not necessarily
precondition the former. Of course, it would be much better, if
relations between the states and also closer friendly ties between the
peoples were in existence. But the peoples will be able to promote
friendship, even without diplomatic relations. It is preferable that in
the future the Korean and Japanese peoples visit each other and also
exchange culture, whether diplomatic relations exist or not. We hope
that the Japan-Korea Society will make continuous efforts to this
end.
The Korean and Japanese peoples’ struggle for peace is closely
interlinked. So they should support and sympathize with each other in
their struggle for peace.
Since the revival of Japanese militarism is a threat to peace and
security in Asia as a whole, our people actively support the Japanese
people in their struggle against it. The Korean people also actively
support their struggle against the amendment to the “Japan-US security
treaty” for the worse. We believe that these struggles will be more
successful in the future.
As for trade relations between Korea and Japan, we believe their
development is necessary. Exchange of necessary goods would be
beneficial to the peoples of both countries because they are neighbours.
We consider trade with Japan is possible, even though we have no
diplomatic relations with her. At present we are trading with India,
Burma, the United Arab Republic, Switzerland, Britain, West
Germany and many other countries with which we have no diplomatic
relations. But we have no trade with Japan, our neighbour. This is
entirely due to the unfriendly attitude of the Japanese government
towards our country.
I would like now to comment briefly on the “ROK-Japan talks”.
The so-called “ROK-Japan talks” are a secret dialogue between
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aggressors and traitors. The puppet Syngman Rhee clique is the stooge
of the US imperialists; it cannot represent the interests of the Korean
people. The Japanese reactionaries, headed by Kishi, are dreaming of
making inroads on foreign countries, under the manipulation and with
the support of the US imperialists. Being secret talks between such
shady negotiators, this dialogue has nothing to do with the will and
interests of both the Korean and Japanese peoples. That is why we are
completely opposed to these “talks”.
The “ROK-Japan talks” up to now show that the claims submitted
before the puppet Syngman Rheeites by the Japanese reactionary
government are all unjustifiable, and the Syngman Rhee clique’s
dealings with such claims run counter to the will of our people. All the
“items on the agenda” of the “ROK-Japan talks” are illegal and
contrary to our people’s will in every respect.
This is true, for instance, of the “question of cultural assets”. It is
natural that the Japanese militarists should return to the Korean people
the cultural assets which they plundered from Korea in the past.
Nevertheless, these reactionaries are plotting to justify this act of
plunder. Their plan to return some of these spoils to the puppet
Syngman Rhee clique is also criminal. If delivered to the puppet
clique, which cannot represent the interests of the Korean people, the
cultural assets would not be used for the benefit of the Korean people.
We do not recognize the “Syngman Rhee line”, which is at issue
between the Japanese militarists and the south Korean puppet clique
over the “question of fishing”. That is an arbitrary line drawn by
Syngman Rhee, and does not represent the people’s will. On that
account, none of the Korean people recognize it.
The “ROK-Japan talks” are being held between the Japanese
militarists and the south Korean puppet clique, but the string-pullers
are the US imperialists. They are trying to rally the Japanese
militarists, their puppets in south Korea and the puppet Jiang Jieshi
clique into a military alliance in the Asian region, and trying to install
the Japanese militarists as its ringleader. The “ROK-Japan talks” have
been set up by the US imperialists to link up the Japanese militarists
73
with the south Korean puppets as the first phase of their plot.
The US imperialists’ scheme to create the “tripartite military
alliance” between Japan, Syngman Rhee and Jiang Jieshi, their
puppets, is very insidious. They are plotting to instigate Asians to fight
among themselves, in order to attain their aim to mount aggression on
Asia without difficulty, and furthermore, to invade socialist countries.
For this reason, such a “military alliance” will seriously threaten peace
in Asia and the rest of the world. The Korean and Japanese peoples
must determinedly oppose it together.
I would like now to refer to the question of the repatriation of
Koreans in Japan.
The struggle of these compatriots to return home is fully justified. I
also think it to be quite reasonable that the Japan-Korea Society and
many other social organizations and people of different strata give
support and encouragement to the repatriation movement of the
Koreans in Japan.
First of all I would like to thank them for their support and
encouragement to this movement, and I hope you will convey our
greetings to them on your return.
The Koreans are a homogeneous people and have an ardent love for
their nation. When their country was under Japanese imperialist
occupation, it could not be helped that they even had to live scattered
about. But now that they have the government in their own hands, they
cannot allow themselves to remain mere onlookers at their fellow
countrymen suffering from national humiliation and mistreatment in
foreign lands. At present, the Koreans in Japan are living in great
difficulties. The Japanese government does not provide them with
living conditions at all because they are Koreans. The better the living
conditions of the people in the homeland, the greater pity we will feel
for our overseas compatriots living in hardship. We do hope they will
return home as soon as possible even if we would have to share a bowl
of rice with them.
We are also not just looking at our brothers suffering in south
Korea. At present more than four million people in south Korea are out
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of job and several hundred thousand orphans are living in vagrancy.
Some time ago the Cabinet of the Republic decided to send them relief
and to place the vagrant orphans entirely under its care. The Cabinet
notified the south Korean puppet regime about this decision. But they
have given no answer yet.
Out of brotherly love, we requested the Japanese government to
authorize the repatriation of our fellow countrymen. However, they
have not yet complied with our request. I think the repatriation of
Koreans will not pose any problem to the Japanese government,
though there are no diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan. The
Japanese government has the responsibility to send them back to their
homeland.
Returning home is an inalienable, legitimate national right of the
Koreans in Japan. So the Japanese government must repatriate them as
early as possible.
We are ready to accept all the Koreans in Japan who are desirous of
repatriation. We have already built a large number of dwelling houses,
so that we would be in a position to provide them with adequate
housing conditions. As you may have seen, our countryside has been
reconstructed, and the food supply is guaranteed to all our people.
Factories have been rebuilt and can mainly meet the people’s demands
for consumer goods. So our country is not in such circumstances that it
cannot afford to provide for the well-being of the returnees from Japan
even if they number hundreds of thousands.
There is no problem of employment, either. At present the trouble
in our country is that factories and rural communities are short of
manpower. We will provide them with jobs according to their abilities
and physical aptitudes.
The education of their children, too, will not be a problem. The
universal compulsory secondary education is already in force, and all
the younger generation is receiving free and compulsory secondary
education. We are fully capable of giving education to hundreds of
thousands of their children without having to construct additional
schools.
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In short, we are fully prepared to provide all conditions that are
required by the returnees, so that they would be able to lead a happy
new life, with steady jobs and with their children educated. That is why
there would not be any problem in our accepting them.
The repatriation of the Korean compatriots depends upon the
sincerity of the Japanese government. If the Japanese government
makes an effort to send them back home from a humanitarian
standpoint, their repatriation would be easily effected.
The Japanese government should not only allow the Korean
nationals in Japan to return home, but it should also take appropriate
measures to guarantee their safe journey to their homeland. This is the
reasonable thing and duty to do for the Japanese government. The
safety of the returning Koreans in the Japanese territorial waters should
be the responsibility of the Japanese government; and in our territorial
waters, this responsibility would be handed over to the Government of
our Republic.
We deem it imperative that the Korean nationals in Japan should
have the freedom to visit their homeland. At present the Japanese
government does not permit them this freedom, and this, too, is a
hostile attitude towards the Korean nation.
The Japanese people’s support for the repatriation of the Koreans is
important. The Japanese people should actively support and
sympathize with their repatriation movement and help them to return
home. In this regard your role is very important. Our people expect a
great deal from you. We hope you will continue your efforts to make
possible the repatriation of our compatriots. Your efforts are for the
good of the people. The people will appreciate those who work for
them. We request you to work harder for the people.
Under the patronage of US imperialism, the Japanese and south
Korean reactionaries are obstructing the repatriation of the Koreans
from Japan, but their repatriation would be effected were the Korean
and Japanese peoples to put up a determined struggle.
We are very pleased about the fact that there are many people like
you in Japan who support us. Our dialogue with you represents our
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dialogue with the Japanese people. Although we are not in a position to
visit Japan, you can always visit our country. We hope that you will
visit our country frequently and that the relations between you and our
people will become closer.
You wished us success in building socialism. We will meet your
wish by accelerating the peaceful reunification of our country and the
building of socialism.
77
CONCLUDING SPEECH AT THE FEBRUARY
1959 PLENARY MEETING OF THE CENTRAL
COMMITTEE OF THE WORKERS’
PARTY OF KOREA
February 25, 1959
This plenary meeting discussed problems of great significance such
as the improvement in the quality of industrial products and transport.
I should like to speak to you about some of the discussed problems
which must be further stressed.
1. ON IMPROVING THE QUALITY
OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS
Since the problem of improving the quality of industrial products
was clearly put forward in the report, I will not deal with it at length.
As we are wont to say, improving the people’s livelihood is the
supreme principle of our Party’s activities. In fact, now we intend to
improve the quality of goods to be able to raise the people’s standard of
living.
Our present production is not small in quantity. For instance, we are
going to weave 150 million metres of cloth this year. If we do so, 15
metres of cloth will be provided per person. This is no small amount.
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As another example we can mention that this year we plan to
produce two million tons of cement, or 200 kilogrammes per capita. As
for pig iron, the production is expected to be about 800,000 tons, or 80
kilogrammes per capita. Quantitatively, they are all not small.
The important thing is not just to produce goods in large quantity,
but to improve their quality, so that the people could use them more
pleasantly and effectively. Only then can the standard of living of the
people be raised.
Even if we turn out 15 metres of cloth per capita, we cannot meet
the demand of the people if we only weave the same kind of cloth as
that produced last year. We should weave stuff for dress and coat better
than that. We should produce good knitwear in various colours and
patterns for children and for meeting the tastes of women. It is no use
weaving only the same kind of cloth continuously.
We now have enough conditions to improve the quality of goods.
Needless to say, this is not the first time that our Party has set forth this
task. We have always striven to improve the quality of goods while
increasing production. And today when the material and technical
foundations for raising the quality of goods have been laid, this task
poses itself as a still more urgent and realistic one. What we have to do
now is work well by relying on the productive forces already achieved.
Then the quality of goods will improve quickly.
Rapid improvement in the quality of goods means raising the
people’s standard of living and consolidating our economic basis at a
faster rate. Therefore, the problem of higher quality was one of the
most important issues discussed at this meeting and it was raised as a
task of the whole Party.
There is no doubt that with the development of the productive
forces, the quality of goods will be gradually improved. But we are
now putting more emphasis on this problem because we want to work
better and make more rapid progress.
Making continuous advance and innovation is a struggle for
accelerating the country’s industrialization and promoting the building
of socialism to a higher stage.
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We are now reaching the high peak of socialism. In order to
accomplish industrialization quickly and promote socialist
construction, we should carry on the technical and cultural revolutions
and wage an ideological struggle. Otherwise, it is impossible for us to
make quick progress and reach the high peak of socialism.
Even the problem of raising the quality of goods cannot be solved
without ideological struggle. The main factor of the poor quality is
exactly in the outdated ideological viewpoint of our personnel.
Our people still have the habit of making and using articles
haphazardly, doing things at random and living in a desultory way. The
Korean people, by nature, are a people who are sharp, have a great
capacity for united action and like cleanliness. But during half a
century of Japanese imperialist rule, they developed this random habit.
The Koreans were originally a nation with strong patriotism-they
used to love their home and country. But, suffering from the Japanese
imperialists’ oppression and exploitation for 36 years when they were
stateless, they became apathetic to everything and lived haphazardly
from day to day. So their spirit of sparing and loving even a tree, a
blade of grass and a river of their country was weakened, and
eventually they did not bother any more about such things. When they
got some money, people drank and wandered singing degenerate songs
with tears and sighs. They were always saddled with debts. They
would barely raise crops and pay back their debts, only to borrow
money and drink again. In those years people had the tendency to
behave and live in a haphazard way as a homeless nation.
This tendency was implanted by the Japanese imperialists. Instead
of imbuing the Koreans with patriotism to love their land and their
country, they instilled into them the tendency of degeneration and
despair, leading an aimless and dissipated life drinking and singing
fantastic songs. This is a dangerous tendency of defeatism. We must
exterminate this ideological virus remaining in the minds of our people
and arm them with socialist patriotism.
Socialist patriotism means the spirit of loving even a blade of grass,
a tree, a river, a mountain, and one’s village, one’s county, one’s
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province and, furthermore, one’s country and the entire socialist camp.
Many people lack the spirit of regarding everything as their own
and as belonging to the Koreans. So, although we plant trees and turf,
these people don’t bother if they damage them. They do not take it into
consideration that trees and turf are advantageous for them, for all
people and for the country. We should constantly cultivate our people
in the spirit of considering every tree and every blade of grass as theirs
and as the country’s property and considering them to be for their own
happiness and for the eternal welfare of their posterity.
During the Japanese imperialist rule, the Koreans lived as slaves,
but today when we have taken power into our own hands, all factories,
farms, parks, schools and theatres belong to us, to the Koreans, to our
people. When people build a house, they should regard it as their own
and as belonging to the people, and make it functional, solid and clean
so that it is comfortable for the people to live in. When railway workers
carry a pack of load, they should convey it in time and with accuracy
without causing loss or breakage, considering it as the property of the
state and the people. In weaving even a yard of cloth, the worker
should weave it attractively and to wear well for the country and the
people.
Formerly, workers built houses for the rich and wove cloth for the
capitalists. They did not care whether the rich and capitalists would
live comfortably eating well in the houses and whether or not the cloth
would wear well. All they cared about was the money they earned.
But today, in trade matters, we should start from the standpoint of
serving the people. Our trade is not conducted for money’s sake. It is
for supplying the people timely with all necessities of life-clothes,
shoes, bean curd, soy-bean oil, soy, bean paste and the like-that are
nice, tasty and not expensive.
If one has a high sense of service to the people, one will do or make
anything well and scrupulously. After all, what matters is one’s
mentality.
Therefore, the Party organizations at all levels should combine the
struggle for improving the quality of goods with the ideological
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struggle and with the work of educating the workers in socialist
patriotism and the spirit of serving the people.
The second important thing required to improve the quality of
goods is to raise the technical and cultural standards of the working
people.
Without technology it is impossible to raise quality however hard
we may try. Our industry is developing very fast, so we cannot keep
pace with this development by relying only on our present technical
accomplishments. Everyone should learn at least one technique. Not
one, but two or three different kinds of techniques. The more the better.
The most important thing is to get versed in one’s own work. Our
Workers’ Party members should become well versed in their work as
prescribed in the Party Rules. To do so they should improve
technological knowledge at any cost.
We should do this by learning from professors, engineers, assistant
engineers, and then from those technicians who are among the people.
In order to improve the technological level, we should take active
measures to use all methods and possibilities such as school education,
work and spare time. Thus, everyone should learn techniques and
consider the ignorance in technology most shameful. The eating “skill”
is common to all. Thus, they should acquire the technique of
production. Only then will our country be developed quickly.
Our country is lagging behind. Our life is hard and we are
backward, so we should advance more quickly than others. For this
purpose we must improve the technological level.
Our technology is still backward in all aspects. We need
technological knowledge both to improve quality and to invent new
things. Therefore, everybody should strive to improve it.
The third important requirement in the struggle for higher quality is
to strengthen discipline and system.
At present the standard operation regulations are being frequently
ignored in the production process. The standard operation regulations
are not fixed but change incessantly according to the technological
development, and so we should make new standard regulations and
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manufacture new products according to them.
Once they are laid down, discipline and system should be
established so that all work is conducted according to them. If you
simply reckon people will voluntarily observe the regulations, you are
wrong.
In order to ensure that the standard operation regulations are
observed and the quality of goods is improved, we should have a
checkup system and also apply legal sanctions. I think it is not right to
leave the checkup of products to the producer organizations only. To
ensure more strict inspection of goods, it will be good to see to it that
inspection is held by the producer unit itself and the final checkup is
made by the goods inspection agency under the Cabinet. Only then can
the inspection system be of help to improve quality.
All problems of production, including that of higher quality, should
be put under the control of the Party organizations. At present our
Party officials fail to delve deep into production processes. They are
only able to make general appeal for production in large quantities, but
they do not know concretely what to do and how. In order to take
production in hand and guide it in a practical manner, they should
unfailingly have the technical knowledge of the given branch.
As I said some time ago when I had a conversation with the factory
Party committee chairmen, we should not think technology to be
something mysterious. A few months will be enough to get a full
knowledge of the fundamentals and production processes.
To take an example. It is not so difficult to work the lathe.
Discharged soldiers who have been assigned to machine plants become
third-grade workers in a number of days; fifth-grade workers in about
half a year; and sixth-or seventh-grade workers in a year or so.
Party workers must not shout ineffectively, “produce more”, “do
well” and “improve quality” while keeping themselves out of
production and behaving bureaucratically.
Nowadays the county Party committee chairmen do not go to the
local factories often. The reason is that they are not aware of their
working procedures. They frequently go out to the agricultural
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cooperatives. This is because they have some knowledge of cold-bed
seedlings and humus-grown cotton and other things of farming. They
often go to places of which they have some knowledge because they
are interested. But they are unwilling to go to places with which they
are not familiar.
Party organizations should be aware of all conditions and
production processes of the factories, and even the performance of
machines. All county and factory Party committee chairmen and
factory Party organizers should have a knowledge of technology. Only
then can they take production in hand, exercise practical Party control
over production, express their opinions and give criticism when any
problem arises.
2. ON IMPROVING TRANSPORT
Our production capacity has now been expanded greatly. The
amount of freight alone has increased to about four times that of the
prewar years. But the railways have not been expanded largely. Road
transport has also grown compared to the prewar years, but it lags
considerably behind the demands.
Under these conditions, the solution of the transport problem is a
difficult, yet important task facing the Party. Without bringing about
change in this field, we cannot carry out the national economic plan.
The main factor for introducing innovations in railway, road and
water transport is in strengthening political and ideological education
above all, though technical transformation is also important.
Therefore, it is important, before anything else, to strengthen Party
political work and enhance the role of Party organizations in the
transport sector.
The Party organizations in railway transport have been placed
under the local Party committees, but the latter are utterly indifferent to
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the railways. Party organizations must discard such an indifferent
attitude as soon as possible and exercise control over the railways.
While strengthening the political and ideological education among
the railway workers, the Party organizations must wage a resolute
struggle against bureaucratism and disorder remaining in this field.
Bureaucratism is glaring in the railways. It is precisely in the railway
field where there is still a lot of bureaucratism. The same can also be
said as far as road transport is concerned. It is true that in the railways a
strong one-man control and command system is needed and an
army-like discipline and order is necessary. Nevertheless, it does not
follow that bureaucratism is permissible. Commanding has nothing to
do with bureaucratism. It seems people think bureaucratism is
permitted in the railways because a command system has been
established there. But this is not so. Command is command and
discipline is discipline, but bureaucratic behaviour is not allowed.
The old Japanese style of work is still alive as ever in the railways.
The leading organs of the railways have many cadres of worker origin
and the railway regulations have all been revised. Nevertheless,
bureaucratism persists. Cadres should not bear down on their
subordinates in work simply because there is the system of command
and control.
It appears that there is no revolutionary comradeship in the railways
to respect and love each other. Indifference to the lower level is evident
everywhere. The spirit of mutual love and cooperation between the
superiors and the subordinates should be established in the railways.
The railways should have strict order and discipline. An army-like
discipline is necessary. The railways should operate as correctly and
precisely as the hands on the clock. This requires the strict observance
of order and discipline.
Raising the technical level is very important for improvements in
transport. Our railways are now technically at a low level. In particular,
technical personnel are very short. Many technicians and skilled
workers were killed during the war, and the new workers enrolled after
the armistice are still inexperienced in many respects. And those who
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have recently graduated from school are not skilled in the practical
work. It is therefore very urgent to raise the technical level and skill of
the railway workers.
In order to solve the transport problem, we should take all
measures, and the most decisive of them is railway electrification.
At present, the railways use domestic coal, but they keep
complaining that heating power is weak, steam does not get up well,
and what not. In order to overcome all this and increase the volume of
transport, we should decisively switch over the railways to electric
traction.
Railway electrification was already proposed at the Third Party
Congress and discussed several times at the Presidium of the Party
Central Committee. We must strongly press ahead with electrification
at all costs.
It is not too much to say that the railways have already fulfilled all
their assignments specified in the First Five-Year Plan. Until the
Second Five-Year Plan will be proposed, the railways actually have no
new task to carry out. It is for this reason that the present plenary
meeting is going to indicate the orientation of railway construction
until the time when the Second Five-Year Plan will be adopted.
We should carry out railway construction with the aim of
completing railway electrification during the Second Five-Year Plan.
All railway workers and technicians should actively search for
potentials to produce equipment needed for railway electrification,
including electric locomotives, on their own.
According to our calculations, if we operate a thermal power station
using one-third of the coal now consumed in the railways, we can
electrify all railways with the power produced. Then many problems
will be solved, for two-thirds of coal will be economized, more freight
will be hauled, and personnel will be cut down.
Even after the railway electrification, transport capacity will be
short. Therefore, more double tracks should be laid and water transport
further developed. In particular, developing water transport is more
urgent now. In fact, we have so far failed to develop water transport. Of
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course, we have some difficulty in this connection, but the main cause
is the lack of boldness to tackle this problem. In the future, water
transport should be actively developed to lighten the burden of the
railways.
If we had taken water transport into consideration when we built
waterways, we could have settled many problems. But as we built them
without giving attention to water transport, we cannot use them for
water transport, although we devoted more labour than for the
construction of canals. As an example we can refer to the Anju
irrigation project. If we had built an aqueduct bridge, instead of an
underground duct, vessels would have been able to navigate.
We have many favourable conditions to develop river transport. We
should properly utilize all rivers including the Taedong, Amnok,
Chongchon and Tuman. If only work is organized well, we can open
waterways and vessels built especially for the purpose can be tugged
up stream where water is shallow and float down riding the waves.
When we build a large waterway, it will be good to make it usable as a
canal. We should exert every effort to develop river transport.
As for road transport, the number of transport vehicles will increase
in the future. We are going to send 25,000-30,000 transport vehicles to
the countryside alone. This is not a small number. Besides, the army,
factories and enterprises have a large number of transport vehicles.
What is important in motor transport is the fuel problem. At present
they make much ado about substitute fuel or something like that. But
there is no change to speak of. The personnel in the Academy of
Sciences and in the field of transport should take positive measures to
find a substitute for the present fuel. It is very hard for us to use
hundreds of thousand tons of imported gasoline without producing
substitute fuel. Of course, we can buy gasoline. However, we cannot
ship it in time. So, we should unfailingly solve the problem of
substitute fuel.
Another important thing in road transport is road maintenance.
Roads are not kept in good shape now. Provincial and county people’s
committees are quite indifferent to roads. Even when the roads which
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were repaired and expanded during the war, are damaged in the rainy
season, they do not bother to repair them.
In order to introduce mechanization in the rural areas, roads should
be better maintained and more new roads built. Only then can we
mechanize haulage in the countryside.
First of all, the streets in Pyongyang and its outskirts should be
paved. This year we should start paving the highway between
Pyongyang and Nampho where motor traffic is heavy.
Counties, too, can produce cement on their own and pave the roads.
In the farmers’ slack season, weak spots of the roads should be
surfaced with concrete and protection walls should be well kept so that
they do not crumble. Thus, good roads should be built.
3. ON PARTY WORK
Chairmen of county Party committees and managers and Party
organizers of major factories and enterprises are attending this plenary
meeting. So, I think it necessary to talk about Party work on this
occasion.
As I have mentioned, all problems such as improving the quality of
products, ensuring transport and so on depend on ideological work.
With sound thinking, you will manufacture good products, learn
technology more quickly, keep order well and ensure transport work
smoothly.
Without strengthening ideological work it is impossible to
consolidate the Party and the people’s government, to build socialism
well and to increase the faith in victory.
Ideological work which is so important is incumbent on Party
organizations. However, the provincial and county Party committee
chairmen do not conduct this work properly but still take
administrative work upon themselves and devote themselves to it.
Party organizations must neither take administrative work upon
themselves nor follow administrative organizations. They should
explain Party policy to the people, fully implement it by mobilizing
them, and guide and ensure all work politically.
The first and foremost task of Party organizations-factory, primary,
county, provincial and all—is to strengthen the Party. In order to carry
on the revolution the Party should be strengthened and the masses
united around the Party. Without winning over the masses it is
impossible either to consolidate the Party or to carry out the revolution.
Only when the masses are united around the Party and mobilized can
we develop revolutionary work.
Revolutionary work is nothing special. Those who serve in the
People’s Army assume the responsibility of defending the country,
those in the internal security organs put down counter-revolutionary
elements and maintain public order, factory workers produce a great
quantity of goods, farmers increase agricultural production, those who
work in the fields of science, education and culture strive to develop
their work. This is exactly revolutionary work.
However, how is our Party work going on? The work is inverted.
The Party workers neither strengthen the Party nor rally the masses but
are devoting their time to economic work. If the Party is not
strengthened and the masses are not united around it, economic work
cannot be successful. Unless priority is given to political work to
activate the masses according to the Party’s will, the revolution cannot
be successful.
As is pointed out in the Party Rules, the first and foremost duty of
the Party members is to consolidate the Party and propagate Party
policy. When the unity and cohesion of the Party ranks are
strengthened and Party policy is explained to all the people to make it
their own concern, all problems will be solved.
In January last year, the Party Central Committee put forward
personnel management, that is, the work of thoroughly knowing and
educating personnel, as the primary task of Party work so as to further
consolidate the Party. But up to now there has been no significant
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change in the Party’s personnel management.
If the personnel of the Party and government bodies, economic
establishments and social organizations are thoroughly studied and
strenuously educated, if the one million members of the Party are all
turned into combatants loyal to the Party through their influence, and if
each Party member is made to work well and always play the vanguard
role among the masses, then the ties between the Party and the masses
will be strengthened further and the Party’s fighting power will
increase.
Our Party is not formed only of those who are completely armed
with communist ideology. Therefore, it is of special importance to
thoroughly study personnel and tirelessly conduct the Marxist-Leninist
education among the Party members.
As everyone knows, our Workers’ Party was founded through the
merger of the Communist Party and the New Democratic Party. The
New Democratic Party was a party of petty bourgeois who could not be
considered to fully approve of communism. Therefore, not all our
Workers’ Party members can be regarded as communists. This
situation makes it necessary to educate our Party members well and
turn all of them into communists.
Nevertheless, our Party organizations are engrossing in
administrative and economic work, thus neglecting the work with
Party members and the people and their education.
Party work is the work amongst people. The central task of the
Party organizations is to promote the Party spirit of the members who
are working in the Party bodies, government organs, economic
establishments and social organizations, to strengthen their education
in Marxism-Leninism, to rally all Party members firmly around the
Party Central Committee, to win over the broad sections of the masses,
and to mobilize them to the implementation of their revolutionary
tasks.
The chairman of the North Hamgyong Provincial People’s
Committee did not carry out the Party’s instructions to supply the
workers and office employees with sufficient vegetables. This was
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exactly due to his lack of Party ideological education. This tells us how
much more important it is for the Party officials to study cadres well,
place them correctly and educate them to become revolutionary cadres
with a strong Party spirit who go through fire and water when it comes
to carrying out the decisions and instructions of the Party, rather than
to go round busily to conduct economic work.
Therefore, the Party organizations at all levels should place the main
stress on the work of strengthening the Party in educating cadres and
ordinary members, infusing Party policy to the people and uniting them
firmly around the Party. This should be the basic factor in Party work.
However, this does not mean that the Party organizations should
withdraw completely from economic work. They are not allowed to do
so. Today economic work is an important task of our revolution.
Therefore, Party organizations should get a grip on it and also control it.
The Party’s control of economic work is to study Party policy,
explain it to the people, encourage them to carry out economic tasks,
see if this work goes well or not, encourage what is done well and
correct what goes wrong. Party organizations should not work in such
a way as to take administrative work upon themselves and work out
plans by themselves. This kind of work should be left in the hands of
the officials of government bodies and economic establishments.
Our Party work has undergone a great change since the April 1955
Plenary Meeting, the Third Party Congress and, especially, since the
anti-factionist struggle in 1956. However, there is still the mistaken
practice of taking on administrative work without conducting Party
work and of working formally. We should thoroughly rectify this.
Moreover, it is important to improve the method of Party work.
Party work should not be done by the administrative method or by the
method of command which is used in the people’s government organs
or in the army. The fundamental method of Party work is persuasion
and education. There can be no Party work apart from persuasion and
education.
Party workers should always live amongst the people. Only by
identifying itself closely with the lively creative life of the people, can
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the Party always emerge victorious. It is the basic demand of our Party
to go amongst the people and share good and bad experiences with
them, not only to teach them but also to learn from them, and to
strengthen the ties with them.
Party workers should firmly depend on the masses, learn to
convince them of the correctness of Party policy and to mobilize them
so that they uphold the leadership of the Party and follow the Party
voluntarily. We cannot expect Party work to go successfully while we
sit in the office behaving bureaucratically, using such a method as
summoning people and drafting and sending out orders and
instructions.
Party workers should always meet and have dialogues with the
people, find out about their needs and desires and, on this basis,
conduct mass work. Only then can the Party win the confidence of the
masses and the latter will come out consciously in the struggle to carry
out Party policy. Such is the method of Party work.
At one time a rut of bureaucracy and administrative style of work
was formed in our Party. This was due to specific historical
backgrounds: our Party came to power as soon as it was founded with
not much experience in mass work, and, to make the matter worse, Ho
Ka I, a self-styled “Party doctor”, spread a bureaucratic style of work
in the Party. So our officials regarded it as the Party method of work to
dictate to subordinates just as he did and thought that that was the
authentic method. When he was dismissed from the Party, those who
formed the Political Bureau of the Ministry of Railways were said to
have remarked that Party work would go amiss because the “Party
doctor” had been ousted. But, in fact, our Party was able to set its work
on the right track since he was fired.
When we waged the anti-Japanese armed struggle, Party work
depended on voluntariness and consciousness of the Party members.
We trained and hardened the men by persuasion and education. At that
time there were neither organs of dictatorship nor jail. Slipping away
some five ri from a sentry post one could reach the enemy’s area.
Under the circumstances it was unreasonable to handle them by force.
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Only those who were educated in voluntary discipline and
revolutionary ideas could struggle strenuously to the end without
yielding to the enemy.
By order and administrative method you cannot guarantee the unity
of ideology and purpose or mobilize the masses in the revolutionary
struggle. Provincial, county and factory Party committee chairmen,
factory Party organizers and all our Party cadres should thoroughly
understand this truth and determinedly correct the method of Party
work.
Our Party’s work method has considerably improved in recent
years. But there still remains the administrative and ordering method of
work. We must do away with this method.
Some of our Party officials still abuse Party authority. The Party is
not an establishment to throw its weight about. Since the Party is a
body of conscious people, organized on the voluntary principle, there
can be no wielding of authority nor can there be different ra nks of
people in the Party. As is stipulated in the Party Rules, there is neither a
senior nor a junior among the Party members. It is an outdated
ideology to regard the Party as a power organ or for Party workers to
try to throw their weight about.
Since I began working directly in the Party Central Committee, I
have particularly stressed the need for you comrades to desist from
wielding Party authority. In order to eliminate the misuse of Party
authority I told you to refrain from using the term “inspection” and
change it into “intensive guidance”. When instructors went down to
inspect lower echelons in the past, they only ferreted out shortcomings.
When they failed to bring several bundles of faults, they were
considered unsuccessful and taken to task. So they hunted about here
and there to find out as many faults as they could. Those who worked
like this were recognized as best Party officials.
I received a lot of such bundles in the past. Of course, I could not
look through them all, but, when I looked into some of them, I felt as if
our Party were on the brink of crumbling. Such was the case with the
People’s Army. When I read the report on the inspection of the
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People’s Army, this army seemed to be collapsing altogether. But it
still existed.
True, Party officials have to know how to discover defects. But
what matters is not to discover them, but to correct them and put the
work on the right track. The main thing is not to blame someone for the
shortcomings discovered, fussing about, disgracing or dismissing
people, but to save them and bring the work on the right track.
Our Party Central Committee has now got rid of the old practice of
travelling about with a lot of fault bundles and the abuse of brandishing
Party authority and throwing its weight about. But in lower Party
organizations there still exist people who are fond of wielding power.
When Party officials are told to take jobs in other organs, none of them
feel happy. They take it for something like being dismissed from the
post of a feudal government. This is all bad. Whatever job one is
responsible for, one is performing a Party assignment. Those who
work within Party bodies directly organize the intemal-Party life, and
those who work outside them perform the revolutionary duty given by
the Party.
The Party organization must not just fuss about mistakes in work,
finding fault with people. It must set the direction lest the work should
go astray. It must organize work as well as love, enlighten and help the
officials at lower units. Then, people will respect the Party
organization and its officials, and come to them for advices and
education on their own free will.
The Party officials must study Party policies deeply, and know how
to mobilize the masses efficiently and organize work properly, and
play the role of an organizer and educator. Only then would people
become eager to consult Party workers, seek advices from them and
call on them.
The provincial Party committee chairman, for instance, should
approach people in such a way that the chairman of the provincial
people’s committee willingly comes to see him and ask whether or not
he is working properly, whether or not he has suggested a question
correctly. As the Korean saying goes that you must ask your way even
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when you know it, the provincial people’s committee chairman,
though confident of what he is doing, should consult the provincial
Party committee chairman. There is no harm in doing this. If they seek
the advice of each other, give help to each other and discuss things
between them, everything will go smoothly.
This does not mean, however, that the Party organization should
work, just receiving visitors and giving them advices or assistance. The
Party organization must play the role of an organizer and vanguard in
order to carry out the revolutionary tasks; it must organize work,
mobilize the masses and supervise the implementation of the work,
leading the masses.
The Party officials should be a standard-bearer who leads the
masses in work. They should behave like a mother to people. No
children will refuse to follow their mother who loves, protects and
teaches them. There will be no children who do not respect their
mother who always gives advices to them and takes care of them lest
they should commit errors.
But our Party organizations are not playing the role of a mother well
in helping and educating officials. They frequently abuse Party
authority and behave overbearingly. They tend to torment them by
telling them that they have no Party spirit or are bad ideologically.
Everyone is scared stiff if he is told that he has no Party spirit. You
should not work like this.
Chairmen of factory and county Party committees sometimes
misuse power, afraid for no reason that they might lose dignity. They
are mistaken. If you acquire the work style of studying the Party’s
policy well and bringing it home to the masses, setting a right work
orientation, mobilizing them, teaching them while at the same time
learning from them, and sharing good and bad experiences with them,
then they will naturally follow and respect you.
Besides, an important thing in Party work is to reject fame-seeking.
Fame is needless to Party officials. Nothing is more valuable and
glorious to a revolutionary than serving the people well, convincing
them of the validity of Party policy and being loved by them. This is
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much better for the Party officials than being decorated, highlighted in
a newspaper or praised.
All that you need is to work for the benefit of the revolution and to
be recognized by the people. Your work should be evaluated by the
success in the work of the cooperatives in counties, improvement in the
people’s standard of living, smooth progress in production,
enhancement of the people’s cultural and technical levels and the
resultant high speed of their progress towards communism. It is not an
attitude worthy of a revolutionary to try to gain fame by show of a
makeshift success instead of working substantially, or try to hide his
faults in order to curry favour with his superior, paying no heed to the
interests of the revolution.
Fame-seeking is a manifestation of petty-bourgeois ideology, and
as such it makes a mess of the job. So it must be thoroughly opposed.
Party officials must not try to put themselves in the lime light by means
of fame-seeking, but must show an example of a revolutionary fighter
who faithfully serves the Party and the people. They should set such an
example by striving self-sacrificingly on the job at the head of the
people; and in everyday life they should show an example of a true
man who is frugal and modest, considerate towards others and helps
them. If you work and behave in this way, you will win trust and
respect from all Party members and people.
Changes have taken place in Party work since we hit Party
bureaucracy, warlordism in the People’s Army, police idea in the
interior service establishment, dogmatism and waged a struggle to
establish Juche at the April 1955 Plenary Meeting. Nevertheless, there
still exist quite a few defects in the style and method of our Party work.
We should make further efforts to wipe them out.
I am confident that after this plenary meeting changes will be made
in the style and method of the Party work, and that a great innovation
will take place in exceeding the state plan daily, monthly and quarterly
in the fields of industry and agriculture and in improving the quality of
products.
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ON THE METHOD OF PARTY WORK
Speech at a Short Course for Party Organizers and Chairmen
of the Party Committees at Production Enterprises
and Chairmen of Provincial, City
and County Party Committees
February 26, 1959
I would like to take advantage of the opportunity offered by this
short course for the organizers and chairmen of factory Party
organizations and chairmen of city and county Party committees, and
speak about the work of factory and county Party organizations.
The main points I want to stress to you today are the duties of
factory and county Party committees, the work style Party officials
should have, the education of Party members and self-cultivation of
Party officials, the composition of Party membership, and some other
issues arising from Party work.
1. ON THE DUTIES OF FACTORY
AND COUNTY PARTY COMMITTEES
The first duty of the factory and county Party organizations is to
conduct day-to-day educational work so that Party members will have
a correct understanding of the Party’s policies and a firm position on
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the Party’s line; to unite the Party organizations and all Party members
with one will and one purpose around the Party Central Committee; to
motivate each Party member to always participate in Party life
faithfully and join in all revolutionary work voluntarily; and to strive
for the continued growth and strengthening of the Party ranks.
This is the duty of the Party committee, as explicitly stipulated in
the Party Rules. At present, however, our Party committee chairmen
often forget this primary duty.
Everyone knows that the Party is the General Staff in the
revolutionary movement. Without strengthening the Party there can be
no victory in the revolution. Yet, many comrades neglect this most
important work of strengthening the Party organizations and are
concerned with trifling matters, trailing behind the administrative
workers. If the Party organizations are not strengthened, all other work
will not be done properly.
The second duty of the factory and county Party organizations is to
rouse the chairmen of the Party committees and all Party members to
do work among non-Party masses. The Party organizations should
always propagate our Party’s policies among the non-Party masses and
educate them in revolutionary Marxism-Leninism, thereby rallying the
masses around our Party.
In order to work among the masses the Party organizations should
give correct leadership to those organizations that are closer to the
Party, such as the Democratic Youth League, trade unions and the
Women’s Union. The Party should always propagate its policies and
conduct revolutionary education among the masses through its
peripheral organizations.
The revolution cannot be carried out by our Party alone. The
revolution is an undertaking for the good of the masses, for the good of
the people. Therefore, it cannot be successful unless many people take
part in it. Many of our comrades, however, still fail to understand this
simple truth or, if they are aware of it, do not put it into practice. It is of
the utmost importance to rally as many people as possible around our
Party and to induce them to support its policies.
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We should accept whoever repents his past faults and wants to go
along with us today, even if he served landlords or capitalists or was
influenced by them in the past. If he turns against us, that is another
question. But, as long as he wants to follow us, why should we not
allow him to join us?
And we cannot brand all those who oppose our Party’s policies as
our enemies. Some are against our Party’s policies because they are not
yet fully aware of these policies. The information work of the Party is
necessary precisely because there are people who are still unawakened.
If it was not so, there would have been no need of information work.
It is a consistent policy of our Party to educate even the waverers
and get them to come along with us, and to enlighten those who have
not yet fully awakened. So, the basic task of the Party organizations is
to propagate the Party’s policies and conduct revolutionary education,
so that everyone supports our Party and comes along with us.
Once our Party officials do this kind of organizational and political
work efficiently, everything will go on without a hitch.
Yet another duty of the Party organizations is to carry out
immediate revolutionary tasks.
In the past, we accomplished the tasks of the democratic revolution
against imperialism and the feudal system, and now we are carrying
out the tasks of socialist construction.
Economic work represents one of the most important tasks in the
building of socialism and, at the same time, it is a revolutionary task
for us. After all, we are strengthening the Party and uniting the masses
around it to be able to successfully carry out this revolutionary task.
Effective Party organizational work by no means implies that
economic work may be neglected. We must take it firmly in hand and
direct it efficiently.
Which method should then be adopted by the Party organizations to
direct economic work? Though economic work is an important
revolutionary task which the Party should not neglect, the chairman of
the county Party committee must not directly execute this work, taking
the place of the chairman of the county people’s committee. While
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dealing with economic work, he should not play the same part as the
county people’s committee chairman but should direct it by laying
down the guidelines at the executive committee of the county Party
committee in accordance with the policy and line of the Party Central
Committee, and by giving assignments and by checking up on the
results of their implementation.
Suppose the task of merging the agricultural cooperatives has been
given by the central authority. Then, the county Party committee
chairman should first of all brief the chairman of the county people’s
committee on the essence of the task and then send some Party
instructors to the cooperatives to get necessary data for formulating the
guidelines of the county Party committee for the merger. The county
Party committee chairman will be able to form a positive judgment on
the matter only if he personally goes down and inspects at least one or
two cooperatives.
After that, the county Party executive committee should meet and
decide on specific guidelines as to how and how often explanatory work
should be conducted, when and where the merger should be started, how
the cadres should be allocated, and what measures should be adopted to
rectify any deviations that might crop up in the process of the merger.
Assignments may be given to the officials, but the county people’s
committee chairman should bear the responsibility for their
implementation. In that way, he will discharge the responsibility for
executing the tasks assigned by the Party. For the discussion of
measures to be put into practice, the county people’s committee
chairman should call a meeting of the county people’s committee, or a
meeting of the chairmen of the agricultural cooperatives, or take other
necessary measures.
Thus, whenever a new question arises, the county Party committee
should call a meeting of its executive committee to discuss and decide
on the matter. Of course, the county Party executive committee cannot
deal with everything, and there is no need for it to do so either. Minor
problems may be solved simply by giving appropriate assignments to
the chairman of the county people’s committee.
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In short, the county people’s committee should be made to work
under the leadership of the county Party committee. Any concessions
in this sense will lead to the Party forfeiting its leading functions, and
this might give rise to liberalism and to cases of unscrupulous elements
riding on the Party’s back.
The drawing up of correct guidelines by the county Party
committee is only the initial step in its work. It should be closely
followed by a thorough explanation of the line of the Party Central
Committee and the guidelines of the county Party committee to the
officials of the county people’s committee who must directly put them
into practice. Next in importance for the carrying out of the task is to
allocate cadres, mobilize the people, and check up on and supervise the
process of its implementation.
In checking up, it is necessary to have talks with those who lead the
work, but the best method is to go down below directly and have
discussions with Party members and the masses. You may go to the
factories, farm villages, schools, offices or any other places and talk with
the people there. Through discussions you can find out how the work is
progressing and at the same time you can educate the Party members.
If things seem to be going wrong, an intensive investigation may be
carried out in order to get a better understanding of the situation. If the
results prove that the defect is not so serious, it should be settled through
some sort of discussion, and if it proves serious, another county Party
executive committee meeting should be called to take measures for its
rectification. And the officials of the county people’s committee should
go down to the lower levels to implement these measures.
Thus, the officials of both the county people’s committee and the
economic institutions should always be actively involved in
implementing the tasks assigned to them by the Party.
Meanwhile, Party officials should find time for intemal-Party work.
In other words, they should study the policies and lines of the Party more
profoundly, prepare lectures or educate Party members through dialogue.
In many cases, the county Party committee chairmen do not act this
way, and, when instructed to merge the cooperatives, they set aside all
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other work and, ignoring the chairmen of the county people’s
committees, push themselves forward and go scurrying about for a
time. Where such work methods are adopted, the Party organizations
cannot fulfil their role as organizers and leaders properly. Comrades
who work in such a way claim that they do not find enough time to
carry on their proper jobs as they are incessantly being asked to attend
provincial-level meetings, short courses, etc., and are also told to go
down to the lower units.
Whether you have time or not depends on how you organize your
work. If you organize your work well, you will have as much time as you
want. Then you will have time to call the chief of the internal security
station and ask him how the struggle against the counter-revolutionaries
is going on; to talk with the internal security personnel and leam what
they are thinking and what their level of ideological consciousness is.
You will also find time to attend study courses, lectures and general
meetings of primary Party organizations, etc., and acquaint yourselves
with the actual situation; or to visit the workers’ homes and see how they
live and listen to their demands. By doing so, you will be able to give
correct guidance to all kinds of activities.
If a county Party committee chairman works in this way for a year
or so, he will be aware of the actual situation in his county like he
knows the palm of his hand. The number of Party members would be
around 2,000- 3,000 in a county where there are not any large factories;
and if you work properly for about two years, I think you can get a full
understanding of every Party organization in your county.
But if the county Party committee chairman fails to do so but carries
duties like those of the chairman of the county people’s committee, he
will not be able to tell whether things are going well or not, nor will he
be able to find the time to attend to his regular job as a Party official.
With regards to Party organizers at factories, there is also a notable
tendency to assume the function that should actually belong to the
management. If the Party organizer is going to take upon himself the
function of the manager, it would be better to appoint him manager at
the outset. Why, then, should a separate manager be appointed? A
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distinct line should be drawn between the work of the chairman of the
Party committee and that of the manager.
It is easy to put your signature on papers instead of the manager, but
it is a very difficult job to educate a Party member to carry through the
Party’s policies. Many Party officials put aside this difficult job and
trail behind the administrative workers so as to take the easy way in
work. Because everyone tries to do his work in such an easy way, the
administrative workers, on their part, simply give orders to finish this
or that job by such-and-such a date, and that is all.
If things go on like this, the ultimate result will be that neither Party
nor mass nor economic work will be carried out properly. And it will
be difficult to find out what is wrong, who is wrong and why.
There is nothing new in what I am saying today. It is all explicitly
stated in our Party Rules. The Party Rules are for all of us to abide by,
yet many comrades take them lightly.
There are two tendencies among our chairmen of factory and
county Party committees. One is to perform the functions of
administrative bodies, brandishing the authority of the Party. Party
committee chairmen who are fairly capable often fall into this habit.
On the other extreme, some of the slow-witted Party committee
chairmen act as adjutants to the administrative officials. This is the
second tendency. Both are wrong.
The relationship between the Party committee chairman and the
administrative official can be compared to that of the helmsman and
the oarsman of a boat. Only when the administrative worker rows in
front, while the Party committee chairman, sitting in the stem and
taking the tiller, directs the former to the right or left to keep the boat
on the right course, can the boat move straight ahead. On the contrary,
if both men are in front and occupy themselves with rowing, the boat
may seem to go fast, but it will not make much progress in the long run,
for its course will be zigzag rather than steady.
Once again I emphasize that the necessary Party work methods are
to build up the Party ranks as firm as a rock, rally the masses around the
Party and mobilize them to carry through the Party’s policies,
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supervise the execution of these policies, rectify deviations manifested
in the course of their implementation in good time and draw out a new
policy to fit in with the actual conditions at all times.
2. ON THE STYLE OF PARTY WORK
There is a serious defect in our Party work that must be corrected. It
is the wrong style of conducting Party work by administrative methods
and by issuing orders.
Ordering people about is, by its very nature, not the way Party work
should be carried out. The method of administration and command,
that is, the method of giving orders, might be used in the state organs,
but it has nothing in common with Party work. Giving orders is
necessary in the case of an army in battle, but it is not only unnecessary
but even entirely harmful in Party work.
The way of conducting Party work is to induce the Party members
and the masses, mainly through education and persuasion, to take part
in the revolution voluntarily and purposefully.
Of course, imposing something upon the people by force of orders
is much easier than persuading and educating them.
I have been thinking about the reason why our Party work was
conducted in such a way.
Our Party had very few cadres who had been trained through a long
period of underground activities or guerrilla warfare. So, after
liberation we found ourselves in a situation where our basket, so to
speak, was too small for the things we had to put in it. Therefore, we
could not give our Party workers an adequate training in the
revolutionary work methods. In addition, our Party was organized and
developed in the relatively easy circumstances that followed liberation.
The only work methods that many of our comrades had seen and
learned were the work methods of the Japanese imperialist officials.
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On top of this, the notorious bureaucrat Ho Ka I was in charge of the
organizational work of the Party for several years and spread
bureaucratic methods of work throughout the Party.
If just one of the revolutionary nuclei, who had been engaged in
guerrilla warfare, had been assigned to each Party cell, Ho Ka I, the
bureaucrat, would not have been able to spread his bureaucratic style
of work throughout the Party, even though he had a leading position in
the Central Committee. But, at the time of the formation of the Party,
few people knew how to educate Party members and perform Party
work by revolutionary methods, whereas there were many who
practised bureaucracy. This led many people to believe that Party work
was something that should be conducted only by a sort of
administrative method and by means of issuing orders. From the very
beginning, this has never been an acceptable method for Party work.
Party members should do their work consciously and voluntarily.
However, there are still quite a few cases of our comrades who are doing
work in a passive manner because they have been dictated to do so from
above. Such an attitude towards work should no longer be tolerated.
Think of our underground activities or guerrilla struggles of the
past. They would have not lasted even one single day, had it not been
for conscious unity. Therefore, it would have been suicidal in those
days to stir up discontent among the people by using administrative
methods and by issuing orders in Party work, instead of arousing the
masses to voluntary action.
Needless to say, the guerrilla units, as armed forces, followed
orders in their military activities. But the military orders were always
explained patiently at Party meetings until the people accepted them
consciously and everyone was determined to fight with all his might to
carry them out. To save their meagre ammunition, the guerrillas closed
in on the enemy and fought with bayonets, braving all dangers. Such
heroic deeds could never be hoped for on the basis of brief military
orders alone, without persuasion and education.
There was no means of control over the guerrillas except their own
preparedness. There was no jail or guardhouse for them. In their case,
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therefore, persuasion and education were of exceptional significance.
Education was conducted even during meals, marches and battles.
Now we have the radio, newspapers, magazines and other effective
communication media, but at that time all we had was word of mouth.
Yet we patiently conducted information work and education among the
masses, with the result that they always supported us, and we had
supporters even among the puppet troops.
The guerrillas fought consistently for the people; superiors and
subordinates loved and trusted each other and they were firmly united
by comradely loyalty and revolutionary friendship. The guerrillas lived
in lofty comradeship as well as in the spirit of severe criticism and
strict discipline. None of those who were criticized and punished,
however, deserted our ranks. When punishing a guerrilla, we matched
the seriousness of the punishment to his level of consciousness and
then we immediately put one of our comrades in charge of educating
him patiently.
This work style of the guerrillas must be taken over and developed.
Now, it seems that in some cases, the masses are following our
Party officials, not out of sincere respect, but for fear of losing their
jobs if they are not careful, since the Party officials have “power”.
True, Party work has made great progress, but quite a few
administrative and bureaucratic practices still exist in our Party work.
There have also been many defects in the recent struggle against
conservatism. We gave instructions to educate those conservative
intellectuals to correct their views, shatter their conservatism and thus
rescue them. But the matter was handled in such a wrong way that it
created discontent among a considerable number of Party members.
At the Kangson Steel Plant, production showed an upward swing in
1957, but it has been dropping since the second half of last year. Our
recent on-the-spot investigation into the matter indicated that the cause
was the defective Party work. Party work was carried out by an
administrative method and by issuing orders. This caused complaints
and discontent among many people and dampened their eagerness to
work. If things go on like this, no work can be done well.
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Bureaucracy among Party workers also finds expression in their
brandishing of Party authority. Ho Ka I was the ringleader who
propagated this evil style in our Party.
Since the April 1955 Plenary Meeting, a continued struggle has
been waged against the brandishing of Party authority, but the ulcer
has not yet been completely removed.
Recently, there has been a tendency to scare people because of their
lack of Party spirit, which is another way of brandishing Party
authority. As people are apt to be branded as lacking in Party spirit for
their slightest mistakes, they are impelled to say that everything is their
fault for fear of being expelled from the Party.
It goes without saying that everyone should have Party spirit,
should love and support the Party. No one is allowed to deviate from
the Party’s line or shun Party life. The standards of Party life must be
constantly observed.
The standards of Party life, however, should not be forced upon
Party members. On the contrary, Party members should be induced to
observe them consciously, and the prestige of the chairman of a Party
organization should be maintained by his real ability of leadership, not
by brandishing Party authority.
Nor should you try to boost your prestige with the help of a big desk
and an armchair. No red tape is needed in our Party work. A Party
committee chairman cannot do his work well as long as he simply puts
on airs and be happy to mark the names of others with a red pencil.
If certain persons do not come to see you, then you should go and
see them first. What is wrong with that? There is nothing wrong with it,
even if you visit them ten or a hundred times.
As I have always said. Party members should be encouraged to call
on the chairman of their Party organization. Managers, intellectuals
and all others should be induced to come to the Party committee for
consultation. With this in mind. Party workers should first of all be
modest and earn prestige among the masses. If the Party organizer or
Party committee chairman implements the Party’s policies correctly,
gives ready assistance in administrative work and deals with all
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matters wisely, then Party members will naturally come to him to
discuss their work, and even their private affairs.
The Party organizer or Party committee chairman should find out
what is wrong with his own work when Party members fail to call on
him. But he is doing the contrary, marking down the names of those
who do not call on him as men lacking in Party spirit. And when asked
about how these people work, his usual answer is that they work all
right but are somewhat lacking in Party spirit. This is wrong. If the
manager does not come to him, the Party committee chairman should
look for his own faults and endeavour to study the Party’s policies
more, propagate them well and work better.
At present many feel very unhappy to be transferred from a Party
organ to an administrative body, because they take it as being
dismissed from an organ of authority. This is really lamentable. After
all, administrative work is Party work, too. Why, then, do they hate to
go over to administrative work? There is no difference between
guiding the Party organizations directly and carrying out the Party’s
policies on assignment from the Party. The reason is that these people
regard the Party bodies as organs that wield power.
Whether he works at an administrative organ or a social
organization, or in any other place, a Party committee chairman
should be the standard-bearer, not the one who issues commands. It
is not the Party committee chairman but the manager who should
give commands in a factory. The Party committee chairmen should
march in the vanguard holding high the banner; they should set an
example for others in all work. Some of them, however, fail to hold
up the banner and only give commands and order people to follow
them. Party work will not be successful where things are done this
way.
Furthermore, the Party committee chairman or Party organizer
should not only be an example to Party members but should also be
like a mother. As a mother looks after her children and educates them,
so should the Party organ and its chairman look after Party members
and educate them.
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The Party committee chairman should always be attentive to what
the Party members are concerned about, what they are thinking and
what their ideological maladies are. In this way, he should give them
appropriate and timely education, prevent them from committing
possible errors and help them rectify any mistakes they may have
made. This will make the Party members respect their chairman and
look at him as if he was their mother.
Then, even if he does not brandish Party authority, Party members
will voluntarily support the Party committee and the people will rally
around the Party.
The enhancement of the leadership role of the Party and the
strengthening of Party control, which we call for, should be achieved in
this way. We can never strengthen Party control and elevate its
leadership role by brandishing authority.
The rulers used to brandish their power, but there is no room for
such behaviour by the Workers’ Party members. Today there is no one
who will bow to authority, even though some people may wield it.
Laying the main stress on persuasion and education in Party work
does not in the least mean compromising with liberalism. But defects
revealed in people’s work and life cannot be remedied overnight by
issuing orders. Although such methods seem to eliminate defects, the
time will soon come when the same defects will reappear.
The same applies to the disease of bureaucracy. This disease cannot
be cured overnight and this is clear from the fact that, even though we
have been combatting bureaucracy for a long time, it still persists in
some way or another. Therefore, a tireless struggle should be waged to
wipe out completely the hangovers of wrong work methods of the past.
Moreover, there is another dangerous tendency in the style of work,
namely, fame-seeking and formalism.
What other fame do we Party members need than to be loved and
respected by the people? Is there any greater fame for us
revolutionaries than the recognition by the masses of our loyalty to the
interests of the revolution and the people? Apart from this, there can be
no individual fame for us.
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There will be a great change in our work if the methods of
command and administration are eliminated completely, if the
brandishing of Party authority is stamped out and fame-seeking and
formalism are eradicated from Party work.
3. ON THE WORK OF PARTY EDUCATION
AND THE SELF-CULTURE
OF PARTY OFFICIALS
At present, our educational work seems to be conducted in two
forms generally-short courses and meetings.
According to my experience, the principal method and best form of
education is dialogue. Besides, short courses and meetings can be
organized.
The chairman of the county Party committee should, on a regular
schedule, have dialogues with the ri Party committee chairmen,
internal security personnel, railway workers and other Party members
in his county.
To draw up plans on a monthly basis is not effective, because most
of these monthly plans might not be carried out. But plans drawn up for
10-15-day periods are fully workable. A plan for educational work
should be worked out with a date assigned for talks with a certain
person, another date for a lecture at a certain place, and yet another date
for attending a meeting of a Party organization, etc. It is judicious for
you to notify the Party member you want to have a talk with ahead of
time and, if he lives far away, even to send a car for him on that date
and talk with him for a couple of hours or so.
When you talk to him, you may ask about his health, how he is
getting along, how his work is going on and what books he is reading.
If he says he has read such-and-such a book, you may ask him to tell
you about the most interesting points in it.
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In the course of the conversation you can also tell him that you have
read a certain book which contained such-and-such issues, and ask him
what he thinks about them. In this way, you can shift the subject of the
conversation to theoretical problems and thus educate him.
Also, you can lead the conversation to the struggle against the
counter-revolutionaries or to the question of factionalism and elevate
the ideological consciousness of the comrade. When the talk turns to
work matters, you may explain to him what is right and what is wrong
in the work he has done.
After you have talked things over with him this way a couple of
times, you will become familiar with him, and he will not hesitate to
come to you for guidance and assistance whenever any problem arises.
In the long run, he may even come to consult you on his private affairs.
You can keep in contact with the masses at your office, but the best
way is for you to go to them personally, get in touch and have
conversations with them and educate them, giving them a helping hand
in their work. In order to understand and educate the cadres and people
in a ri, the county Party committee chairman had better go down to the
ri and stay there for a week or so, helping the ri Party committee
chairman in his work. There, he can talk with the ri Party officials, the
cooperative’s management personnel, the people’s committee
officials, internal security personnel, railway and local industry
workers and school teachers, educating all of them in the course of the
conversations.
As all those comrades who have experience in revolutionary
activities know, in doing district work in the days of the anti-Japanese
armed struggle, we used to go down to a Party cell and worked there a
week or so. Living among the workers of the cell, we prepared
documents, wrote leaflets for them and helped them prepare for
meetings, which we also attended. Thus, we educated the workers at
the lower levels while giving them practical help.
Our county Party committee chairmen should also work this way. If
you go down to the ri frequently, the people will get very familiar and
intimate with you and open their hearts to you. Only then can we say
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that we have truly gone among the masses.
Furthermore, educating people through meetings is also important.
One of the main objectives of a meeting is to enable many people to
gain experience and draw lessons through the speeches of a few
people, and thus to educate them. This is why Lenin called the meeting
a school.
But if a meeting is to become a school, adequate preparations must
be made for it.
In dealing with the problems of the railways at the recent plenary
meeting, we set ourselves the objective of denouncing bureaucracy and
establishing discipline, raising our technical level and blueprinting the
future development of the railways. Apparently, there was no
difference of opinion over the prospects for development of the
railways and everyone agreed with them, and the attention of the
speakers was focussed on bureaucracy. Many persons criticized others
as well as themselves for bureaucracy. Our comrades must have
learned quite a bit from this.
As you see, a meeting becomes instructive only when it is well
prepared and properly conducted. A meeting that only provides a
forum for cheering can be neither stimulating nor instructive.
Of course, meetings for cheering are necessary sometimes. Mass
rallies fall in this category. A mass rally ought to be a meeting which
stirs the participants so much that they cannot keep their feet from
dancing at the beating of a drum.
But you should not organize a Party meeting in this manner. A
Party meeting should be carefully prepared so that those attending can
be stimulated and educated. Both the organizational and information
departments should always pay great attention to this. Some comrades
resent having the drafts of their reports or their speeches examined,
regarding it as a sort of censorship, but all this is necessary for a well-
prepared meeting. Good preparation and organization of a meeting
have the purpose of achieving great results in less time.
Meetings can also be organized by another method, that is, the
method of inducing all those present to awaken of their own accord by
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involving them in prolonged debates.
If you want to apply this method, the series of meetings must
continue for at least a month. At this kind of meeting, every participant
should be allowed to express his opinions, good or bad, and to say
whatever he wants, so that the masses themselves judge between right
and wrong. Here, mistaken views should not be dealt blows rashly, but
those who hold wrong views should be made to realize their own errors
in the course of the debates. This is a very long-drawn-out method, but
education given by such a method has lasting effects.
Here, too, of course, certain preparations are needed. If not all, at
least 10 per cent of those attending the meeting should be
well-prepared persons. Only then can they help the others rectify their
wrong ideas.
Thus, there are two methods of conducting meetings-one in which
the people are fed and the other in which they feed themselves. It is
advisable to use both of them.
There is another form of education, the short courses. Short courses
are not organized at schools alone. It is quite important for the county
Party committee chairman to educate and train the Party officials
systematically through short courses.
Our plan is to keep the county Party committee chairmen at their
posts for about five years instead of transferring them frequently.
Frequent transfers of cadres will not do any good.
When I visited Stalingrad in 1954, I found that the regional Party
secretary there had held similar posts for 17 years. Of course, he had
not spent all those years in Stalingrad alone, but had been in other
regions as well. Having worked as regional Party secretary for such a
long time, he was so well acquainted with local conditions that he
knew what the district Party secretaries were thinking and going to do,
and he had everything at his fingertips.
I think our county Party committee chairmen, too, should stay at the
same posts for five or six years. Then they will be able to educate the
cadres and activists in their respective counties systematically.
In my opinion, the county Party committee had better give a short
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course lasting about three days after making thorough preparations for
lectures on a few subjects, instead of running a month-long course, and
then a couple of months later, when all those who attended the first
course have digested what they have learned, call them together again
for another course lasting a few days.
It is a mistake to think that such educational work is solely the task
of the information department. Inasmuch as the education of Party
members and motivation of the people are the main tasks of Party
work, both the information and organizational departments must
undertake them. Without theoretical knowledge those working in the
organizational department cannot handle the organizational work at
all. You are wrong if you think organizational work means merely
issuing Party cards and compiling membership statistics.
Short courses can be held either at the county seat or in the ri.
The holding of meetings organized by the Party Central Committee
in the provinces is now under consideration. The advantages of such a
method are that the provincial workers can learn the work methods of
the Party Central Committee and, furthermore, the Party Central
Committee would be able to give more effective assistance to the
province concerned. At the same time, people from other provinces
can personally observe the work of that province.
This is not the first time we have suggested this mobile method. We
had some experience of it when we were in Jiandao. We then felt the
need to adopt the mobile method, first to ensure secrecy and, secondly,
to spread the expenses equally among all localities concerned.
According to my experience, this method was very helpful in
familiarizing us with the actual conditions in local areas.
It is rather inconvenient to organize courses that extend too long. It
would be better to avoid them in farming seasons. But you must not
abolish short courses for Party officials for fear they might adversely
affect other work. You should remember that a good short course gives
better work results.
It is important to select the subjects of lectures for the short courses
with care. Complex subjects are unnecessary. Easy and simple themes
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are suitable. At present, communist education is most important.
For instance, the first course may deal with the exploiting nature of
the capitalist system and the superiority of the socialist system. The
second course may consist of lectures on the inescapable downfall of
capitalism and the inevitable victory of socialism and communism.
These subjects may be treated in conjunction with the victory of
socialism and the construction of communism in the Soviet Union, the
formation and development of the world socialist system, the two
diametrically opposed realities in the northern half and the southern
half of our country, and so on.
Then, you might take up the subject: the revolution will be won
only through an arduous struggle. Here it is necessary to relate the
lectures effectively to the historical fact that the guerrillas of our
country fought bravely over a long period, surmounting all difficulties.
You can also teach those attending the course that the revolution
cannot be won through the efforts of just a small number of
revolutionaries; it can be won only when the masses are roused to
action and induced to regard it as their own work. This subject may be
handled together with the work methods among the masses.
Lastly, in order to raise the theoretical level of Party members and
deepen their convictions, a lecture may be given on the universal laws
of the development of nature and society, such as the inevitability of
the destruction of the old and of the victory of the new.
All these are vital issues, applicable to practical work. Theory for
theory’s sake and knowledge for knowledge’s sake are of no use.
Education must always be conducted with theoretical problems which
have a bearing on practical work.
There is still another method of educating the cadres and Party
members. That is to urge the cadres to write articles and deliver lectures.
Today this work is not organized well in the Party Central
Committee and in the provinces. In the provincial newspapers, I have
never come across any article written by a county Party committee
chairman on his own work experience. The central newspapers carry
such articles once in a while but there are too few.
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It is very important to let the cadres deliver lectures to the people. It
would be a good idea to organize lectures, say, on Wednesdays and have
the ri Party committee chairman or the chairman of the ri people’s
committee, for instance, give a lecture on his work experience, in the
presence of all cadres of the county Party committee. He should not speak
without any preparations for such a lecture. He should do his work better
and read some reference books. Such a comrade may not be a very good
lecturer, but as long as he does not wander too far off the track politically,
that will do. If he makes any mistakes, you should not criticize him
point-blank but help him to rectify them later. The lecturer may have to
sweat a bit at first, but after a couple of lectures he will gradually become
quite experienced once he gets interested. In this way, every cadre should
be made a competent information and motivation worker. Everyone can
become a information worker and everyone must become so.
It is wrong to think that all the lectures in a county must be given by
the information department chief. Nor should the information or the
organizational department chief monopolize the lectures at short
courses organized by the county; ri and county Party committee
chairmen, too, should give lectures, every one of them on a different
subject. The information department chief should, of course, help
those comrades who are not yet fully prepared. They will have to really
work hard for a few days, reading books and newspapers in order to
become fully acquainted with their subject. But this is the way they
will learn.
Officials should be trained and educated in this way, so that they
can do motivation work at mass rallies and make speeches at factories
and schools.
At present, our Party officials are sadly neglecting their theoretical
studies. It is important to know how to grow cold-bed rice seedlings or
humus-pot seedlings, but you cannot lead revolutionary work with that
alone. Some Party committee chairmen do not even read the
newspapers regularly. Being empty-headed, such people can only
speak nonsense.
We have to raise our theoretical level if we want to give correct
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leadership to revolutionary work. The theoretical elevation of cadres
now poses the most urgent issue.
Revolutionary work is the transformation of society, so how can
you expect it to be easy? In order to transform society and the thought
of people, cadres should first transform their own thinking and arm
themselves with knowledge of the laws of social development. It is
obvious that without studying, i.e., without acquiring knowledge, we
cannot undertake the work of transforming society. Every cadre must
be obligated to study at least two hours a day. Only by doing so can we
carry our work to a higher level.
Nevertheless, when county Party committee chairmen are called in
on some business and asked to stay for another day for a short course,
they make a fuss, claiming that it will seriously affect the farming.
Evasion of short courses under such pretexts cannot be tolerated.
Farming can be left under the care of the chairmen of the county
people’s committees. From now on, no matter what the circumstances,
the county Party committee chairmen should be summoned to the
provincial centres every so often for short courses.
For this purpose, our method of work should be improved. A
county Party committee chairman should no longer take upon himself
to do the work of the chairman of the county people’s committee, but
he should undergo short courses and find time to study, thus acquiring
the qualities of a political leader.
You need not regret that you could not attend the Central Party
School. Of course, you might go there some time in the future. But
studying while working is even better, though it is good to attend the
Party school.
It is important, whether you study at school or at work, that you do
not pretend to know what you do not actually know. It is also important
to study with an open mind. If you do not know, it is better for you to
start with the first lesson in political studies. There is no need to be
ashamed. Even if you have so far pretended to know and have only
talked nonsense, from now on you should learn frankly, and that will
be good. Start from the most preliminary things and study tirelessly,
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and you will finally attain a high level of theory.
You must read books on political theory, but what is most important
is to read the Party newspaper. You cannot know the Party’s policies
and the intentions of the Party Central Committee, unless you read the
Party paper.
It is through the Party paper that the Party informs all its members
of its policies, indicates the course of action and sends messages to
them. Especially, the editorials of the Party paper are the most
important articles, for they reflect the decisions and intentions of the
Presidium of the Party Central Committee. In them, the Party members
can find the orientation for everyday activities as well as the
instructions they have to carry out.
Party workers should also strive constantly to improve their
practical ability, while elevating their level of political theory.
In my opinion, it would be better for you to be humble and admit
that you are not good at conducting Party work. If you do not know
how to carry out Party work, you must start from ABC-how to conduct
a Party meeting, how to lead a primary Party organization, what the
duties of the Party member are, etc.
We cannot know everything perfectly from the start. Not all the
specific methods of Party work are described in detail in the Marxist-
Leninist classics. The methods of Party work are derived from the
experience accumulated in the course of prolonged revolutionary
struggle.
Therefore, we should constantly learn from the experience of
others, and study and analyse our own experience. Do not pretend to
know what you do not know. When you have any question, you should
write to higher-level Party organizations or ask the provincial Party
committee chairman about it, and in this way you will learn.
Party officials are worthy of being called revolutionaries only when
they fulfil their role. How could those who do not know how to do their
jobs properly and are inconstant, although they shoulder the heavy
responsibilities of a Party organizer or a county Party committee
chairman, be called Party workers?
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You should not think you have done Party work when you have
merely learned some of its formalities, let someone prepare a report,
spent much time delivering it, regardless of whether it is correct or not,
and then had the minutes of the meeting filed.
Party work is not appraised on the basis of reports or the minutes of
a meeting. It is assessed according to whether or not Party members
have fully understood the policies of the Party, and whether or not they
perform revolutionary tasks in conformity with the intentions of the
Party Central Committee. Success in the ideological education of Party
members should also be measured by the resulting improvement in
their level of consciousness.
You will commit less errors and rectify those already committed in
good time only by raising your level of political theory and practical
ability through an untiring study of the Party’s policies and
Marxist-Leninist theories.
None of you are over 60 yet. Most of you are between 30 and 40
years old, that is, in the prime of life. You should learn boldly in order
to work more and better.
In addition, Party officials should possess both economic and
technical knowledge.
Today factory Party officials lack technical knowledge and this is a
big drawback. If you are to do your work properly, you must not be
ashamed to learn one technique at least, even by attending technical
evening colleges.
If you do not have technical know-how your Party work will lack a
firm groundwork and you will have no say in matters discussed at the
factory. Such Party officials cannot tell right from wrong when the
chief engineer or the workers put forward some questions at the
factory. This often leads to the evil practice of deciding whatever is
proposed by the workers to be right and of indiscriminately defining
whatever is suggested by the technicians as wrong.
If an opinion is not accepted, however useful it may be, how can
technicians be expected to make suggestion? On what grounds can you
decide that all proposals made by a worker are progressive, while those
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made by a technician are all conservative? Should matters be dealt with
so arbitrarily, our work would be seriously spoilt.
If you lack technical and economic knowledge, you cannot give
correct guidance to the organization of production. Hence, the Party
workers must acquire economic and technical knowledge. Moreover,
unless the general technical and skill level is raised, we cannot reach
the high peak of socialism. The whole Party must be mobilized to
acquire science and technology.
In order to raise our technical level it is necessary to raise our
cultural level. Otherwise, we cannot learn techniques nor can we raise
the level of our ideological consciousness.
Party officials must also be educated in literature and art. Truly
realistic and revolutionary literature and art show the people the most
beautiful and most noble things of human life. From literature and art
we can gain a deeper understanding of life and draw strength and
courage for our struggle to create a better life. We cannot live on theory
alone. If you will not know any poems and will not read any novels,
life would be too prosaic. Would that be an enjoyable life?
Literature and art are among the most important means of educating
the people. That is why our Party has always been deeply concerned
for the development of a genuinely people-oriented literature and art.
Today we have all types of art troupes and theatrical companies, but
when we were engaged in revolutionary activities, we had to write
stories and scripts and set songs to music ourselves, while conducting
Party organizational and information work and performing military
tasks. In those days it was impossible to invite a theatrical troupe to
give a performance for us. But, even then, we were not reconciled
simply to dry-as-dust information work in the villages, without any art
activity.
If you want to do your work in the countryside effectively, you
should also learn how to lead amateur art circles. For this you must read
literary works. You must read the works of both foreign and home
writers. The works of Gorky of the Soviet Union and Lu Xun of China
are outstanding and everyone must read them once. They are permeated
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with a real love for humanity, hatred for the old society, an infinite
longing for a new society and the fighting spirit necessary for building it.
Party officials should possess a wealth of knowledge, a broad
vision and sharp insight, inasmuch as they must give leadership to all
sectors of our political, economic and cultural life. Without
uninterrupted study and self-discipline, this complex and difficult task
cannot be fulfilled. It is, therefore, necessary for our officials to make it
a strict rule to study at least two hours a day, in order to raise their
theoretical and cultural levels.
You always shout: “Long live the Workers’ Party of Korea, the
organizing and leading force of the Korean people!” But what we call
the organizing and leading role of the Party will not mean anything if
our officials are ignorant.
Party officials should attain not only a high ideological and political
level, but a high level of morality as well. Party officials should abide
by the standards of revolutionary morality in their approach towards
people and in all other activities.
As you have seen, you will be able to claim to be proficient Party
officials only when you have raised your ideological and political
levels, when you are well acquainted with the principles of Party work
and when you have a noble moral character.
4. ON THE COMPOSITION OF PARTY
MEMBERSHIP AND SOME
OTHER QUESTIONS
Let me first touch on the issue of the composition of our Party
membership. As you all know, it is very complex.
As for our working class, not all of our workers possess a high
degree of revolutionary consciousness.
The history of the development of our working class is not very
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long; its ranks grew rapidly only after liberation. Whereas its strength
was only around 200,000 before liberation, it has now grown to nearly
one million. Many workers lost their lives in battle during the war.
Regiments of workers from major factories such as the Hungnam,
Nampho and Songnim Regiments were formed and went to the front.
Most of our workers took up jobs at factories and mines only after
the war. With the rapid postwar reconstruction and development of our
industry, the ranks of our working class, too, have grown rapidly. The
number of workers increased by hundreds of thousands each year. As a
result, the ideological and political education of the working class has
failed to keep up with its numerical growth.
Then, where have those workers who were recruited after the war
come from?
First, some of them were urban petty traders, handicraftsmen and
entrepreneurs who went bankrupt as a result of the war. There was no
alternative for them but to join the producers’ cooperatives or become
factory workers. That is natural, and there is nothing wrong in it.
Second, some of them come from peasant families. Quite a few of
them came to the towns as they could hardly remain in the countryside
because they had served in the “peace maintenance corps” during the
enemy occupation or committed other crimes in the villages. For them,
too, the producers’ cooperatives or factories were the only place to go.
Lastly, there are discharged servicemen and former prisoners of
war. Of the discharged servicemen, many are from the southern half
where they had joined the Volunteers’ Corps. They have been taking
part in the rehabilitation work of the national economy from the very
beginning.
As you can see, the present composition of our working class is
very complex. But the composition, too, is not unchangeable; it can
and will be changed.
If, on the pretext of fighting against counter-revolutionaries, we
were to reject indiscriminately all persons with dubious factors in their
social origin and background, how could we run the factories? We
could not.
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So, we have to study ways and means of carrying out the revolution
with this working class. There is only one way. That is to educate and
transform all of them into a revolutionary working class. In other
words, we mean to assimilate the workers with diverse chequered
social backgrounds into the revolutionary working class.
Some Party committee chairmen are apparently now thinking of
expelling all dubious persons, but this is a very dangerous idea. When
we allocate people who should be transformed to ore mines, they are
rejected there, and when they are sent to coal mines, the people there
fear that they might destroy the mines. Then, where on earth should we
send them?
These people, too, form part of our people and they support us. The
only way we must take is to patiently educate and transform these
people of chequered social backgrounds into members of our
revolutionary working class.
While there is the “Left” tendency of getting rid of all people whose
past records were chequered, there is also a capitulationist tendency of
actually giving up the struggle against the counter-revolutionaries, for
fear of estranging those people. At the Kangson Steel Plant, for
instance, it has even been suggested that the struggle against the
counter-revolutionary elements be dropped for the time being, lest it
should offend certain retrograde intellectuals or certain dubious types
among the former prisoners of war.
The struggle against the counter-revolutionaries should not be
slackened but should be further intensified. The problem is that you are
digging too much into the social backgrounds of people. It is wrong to
suspect former prisoners of war indiscriminately and to categorically
brand intellectuals as conservatives.
You should know clearly that by counter-revolutionaries we mean
only those criminals who are presently engaged in activities against
our revolutionary cause.
But some comrades suspect former prisoners of war
indiscriminately and delve into their backgrounds. This is bound to
come to their notice, as they are also sensitive. It is quite natural that
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such a work method should make them feel extremely uneasy and
dampen their enthusiasm for work.
In fact, many of the former prisoners of war have been working
admirably since they came back to the bosom of the motherland. Those
working at the Kangson Steel Plant have now all become fifth-grade or
higher-grade workers. Many of them have even reached the seventh or
eighth grade. What does this show? It shows that they are working with
zeal, upholding the policies of our Party and the Government of our
Republic.
It is not that we did not know the former prisoners of war had been
subjected to Yankee propaganda when we got them back. We got them
back, knowing well that they had undergone indoctrination by the
Yankees for some years. It is unjust to distrust them without any
warrant.
Of course, among the former prisoners of war there are some who
have been sent by the Yankees on espionage missions. Needless to say,
we must sift them out. We cannot give espionage agents a free hand.
We oppose only the evil-doers who hide among the former prisoners of
war, those who do not work but obstruct and subvert our cause. With
the exception of few counter-revolutionary elements, the great
majority of the former prisoners of war have worked alongside other
workers for some years and have now become workers themselves.
They have become fifth- and sixth-grade workers, which proves that
they are good workers. There is no reason to repudiate them.
Nevertheless, because people tend to look at them through coloured
glasses, all of them are bound to appear as bad.
Our Party workers should be able to distinguish between good and
bad people, single out the rascals to the very last one, and rally the
good people around the Party properly.
It is also unjustified to regard as unreliable those who joined the
Volunteers’ Corps in south Korea and came to us. They fought the
Yankees for three years. Why cannot we trust them? If you are so
distrustful of men from the Volunteers’ Corps, there would not be a
single man in south Korea you could trust. They have lived for many
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years under the influence of the propaganda of the Yankees and
Syngman Rhee.
If you reason that way, the revolution in the southern half of the
country should be considered impossible.
If you reason this way, few people could be considered reliable also
in north Korea, because everybody received education under Japanese
rule or worked under the Japanese. Here the question arises: Who will
carry out the revolution? The notion that nobody is reliable except
those who took part in the revolution in the past is, in fact, an erroneous
view of distrust for the masses.
The same is true of the question of intellectuals. Some people tend
to find faults with intellectuals, casting doubt on whether they stand on
our side or not because their parents were landlords or they were
somewhat well-off in the past. This, too, is unwarranted.
We already made our position clear on the intellectuals issue at the
time of the founding of our Party. We clarified that, although the
Korean intellectuals had served Japanese imperialism and capitalists in
the past, they could now serve and were serving the people. Thus, our
Party is composed not only of workers and peasants but also of
progressive intellectuals. The emblem of our Party is symbolic of this.
Let me make a brief analysis of the character of the intellectuals in
our country. The Korean intellectuals had served Japanese imperialism
in the past, but we should make a clear distinction between those who
served as lackeys of imperialism, betraying the interests of the nation,
and those who were compelled to serve imperialism in order to earn a
living.
For instance, those who served as military or civil policemen were
faithful lackeys of Japanese imperialism. Being thoroughly
pro-Japanese, they were the heinous enemies of the revolution, and
they helped Japanese imperialism to oppress the Korean people.
Immediately after liberation, we even deprived them of citizenship.
But we boldly accepted all the rest, the overwhelming majority,
considering that they could fight together with us in our revolutionary
ranks.
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The old intellectuals, though coming from the bourgeoisie, have
severed their ties with their original economic base a long time ago
and, since liberation, they have been educated by our Party and have
fought in the interests of our Party and people for some 15 years.
Though they had not fought Japanese imperialism, following
liberation they joined in the struggle to confiscate the land of the
landlords and the factories of the capitalists and took part in the
socialist revolution and in the battle against US imperialism. If they
opposed imperialism and feudalism in this way, and if they oppose
capitalism and support socialism, what else can they be but part of the
revolutionary masses?
If intellectuals have detached themselves from their original
economic base and have been steeled and educated in the ideas of the
working class under the leadership of our Party in the course of nearly
15 years of revolutionary struggle, they should now be considered
revolutionary intellectuals, the intellectuals of the working class.
Though they came from the bourgeoisie, they themselves have neither
been landlords nor capitalists. The exploiters were their fathers, elder
brothers or uncles, and what has this to do with them today? Why
should we suspect and distress those who want to follow us, those who
have followed us all along and done their work well?
As I have once said, before the war there was an electrical engineer
named Ri Mun Hwan. We did our best to transform him, but he would
not listen to us; he opposed us and finally deserted. So we called
together all the electrical engineers who had been under his influence
and had a talk with them. They said with one voice that they would
devote all their technical knowledge to the working class if only the
Party trusted them. After that, they did not break their pledge. We have
nothing more to ask of them.
We retreated with them in the difficult period of the war. In
Kanggye we had to put factories into operation right away and, for
this purpose, electricity had to be brought over from Maengjung-ri,
only four kilometres from a place which was occupied by the
Yankees. Then, Comrade Kim Chaek called me up and asked me if he
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could send out an electrical engineer there. I said he could, but asked
him to give that man enough protection so that he would not be
caught by the Yankees. So Comrade Kim Chaek gave him his own
revolver and sent him over. The comrade fulfilled his mission
admirably and came back. If he had intended to go over to the
Yankees’ side, it would have been very easy for him to do so. But we
never thought he would betray us and flee. There is no ground
whatsoever for not trusting such intellectuals.
During the retreat in the war, some officials of a local Party
organization evacuated alone, flatly refusing to take along those
intellectuals who wanted to go with them. Nevertheless, these
intellectuals followed them to the end.
Bad elements may possibly be found among intellectuals, as well.
But the overwhelming majority of them are good people who have
already been tested.
Most of the intellectuals at the Kangson Steel Plant, for example,
are people who have been trained by us since liberation. Yet you say
you cannot rely even on those who have been educated at our
expense.
It turned out that the mother of the chief engineer of the steel plant
had formerly run an inn, and this caused a problem. The Korean inns of
the past were, as you well know, poles apart from hotels. A signboard
was put up and an inn was run with a couple of extra rooms at best,
with the mistress of the house doing the cooking herself to earn a few
handfuls of rice and bowls of soup. And yet some people made a fuss,
saying that the son of such an innkeeper was the son of a
businesswoman and, therefore, his class origin was not good. How
could this woman possibly have been a businesswoman? Even if she
had been, why hold this against her son who is a graduate of Kim
Chaek University of Technology and who, while at school, fought
resolutely in support of the Party as chairman of the Democratic Youth
League branch there? He must have felt unhappy while his class origin
was argued about adversely. Yet, he has gone on working as usual, not
making any complaints. This happened during the absence of the Party
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committee chairman of the steel plant and it was the vice-chairman of
the Party committee who caused this trouble and made many
intellectuals waver.
Originally, there were very few big businessmen in Korea. Middle
and small traders were the majority. Of course, we do not mean that
being a businessman is a good thing. However, many people could
not help following this path in those days, as there were neither
factories nor land for them. Many people ran drugstores, hospitals,
inns and the like to earn their living. It is true that all these
occupations contain, to a greater or less extent, elements of
exploitation of the fruits of others’ labour. But these are not so serious
as to make it impossible to transform these people’s thinking into that
of the working class.
Shortly after liberation, Pak Hon Yong insulted our people by
saying that the Koreans were fond of business. I refuted his unjust view
then and there. Koreans do not like to live off others. They were
compelled to sell apples or keep inns because there were not any
factories to work in or enough land for all of them to farm.
You should make a correct analysis of Korean society. If you are
not careful, you will commit the grave error of handing our own people
over to the enemy side. In brief, the main thing is to educate and
transform people; the important thing is to convert them all into our
people, into the revolutionary working class.
If we thus educate, transform and join hands with all those who want
to follow us, whoever they may be, then all the people will have a sense
of security and work with greater enthusiasm. On the contrary, if we
suspect such or such person, the counter-revolutionary elements may
possibly take advantage of it. We should clearly realize that because
some of our comrades have carried out the Party’s policies incorrectly,
the counter-revolutionary elements who are still lurking among us by
taking advantage of this situation are befooling us.
This time, when you go back to your places, you should join hands
with all the intellectuals, old and new, and boldly conduct political
work among the masses.
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Quite a number of defects have also been revealed in the
ideological struggle against conservatism. Opposing conservatism
means opposing conservative ideas remaining in the people’s minds,
and by no means rejecting those who harbour them. Many comrades
failed to understand this point clearly and gave the cold shoulder to
people with conservative ideas, with the result that the latter’s zeal was
dampened and they became more and more passive.
The Kangson Steel Plant is probably not the only place where this
happened. The Chairman of the South Phyongan Provincial Party
Committee says there are many similar cases elsewhere in his
province. According to those who have been to North Hamgyong
Province, apparently the situation is the same there, too.
Thus, there has now appeared even the brandishing of the authority
of the working class. The abuse of working-class authority has now
been added to the brandishing of Party authority. This is really a
deplorable thing.
It is detrimental to socialist construction to alarm or disturb the
minds of the intellectuals, those coming from the southern half or
others with dubious social backgrounds. The ideological struggle
should not be carried on in this way. This must be corrected by all
means.
Furthermore, Party organizations and Party workers should give
great attention to the working people’s everyday life. The supreme law
governing our Party’s activities is to show constant solicitude for the
material and cultural standards of the working people.
Party organizations and Party committee chairmen should pay
attention even to the most trifling matters: whether or not the workers
are eating well; whether they sleep soundly; whether their hostels are
kept neat and their bedding is clean; and whether they bathe regularly.
They should also actively induce the managers, chief engineers and
other management personnel to do so.
We could not see to these things before, when the conditions were
not ripe, but now this is entirely possible. It is wrong for us to try to do
anything beyond our power, but it is still worse not to do something we
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can. We can look after all such things as arranging dwelling houses,
hostels, nurseries and laundries in a cultured way and providing the
workers with vegetables, bean curd, bean paste, soy and oil.
The Party should always be the reliable champion of the interests of
the people. A determined struggle must be waged against the
phenomenon of giving no attention to the life of the working people,
and a great change must definitely be brought about in this sphere.
Another important thing is to see to it that social organizations such
as the trade unions, Democratic Youth League and Women’s Union
improve their work.
Today the Democratic Youth League is engrossed only in the shock
brigade movement, neglecting educational work.
In certain workplaces, trade union organizations exist only in name.
It is none other than you, who are present here, who are responsible for
this.
Trade unions have many things to do. To educate the working
people in communist ideas, to strive to carry out the cultural revolution
and to improve the life of the working people-all this is the duty of
trade union organizations. But you take all the work upon yourselves
and do not assign any tasks to the trade unions. You do not even teach
them how to carry out their duties.
You should also activate the Women’s Union organizations to
organize properly the work of looking after workers’ families, and
taking care of nurseries, kindergartens and primary schools. Those
chairmen of the Women’s Union organizations who do nothing but
attend meetings, carrying their handbags, are absolutely useless. The
chairmen of the Women’s Union organizations should always give
attention to such things as how children are educated in schools,
whether sanitary conditions are ensured in restaurants and how
children are looked after in nurseries.
Party organizations and Party committee chairmen should not take
all the work upon themselves. The Party cannot undertake
revolutionary work single-handed. As the saying goes, a general
without an army is no general. You must know how to rouse the people
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to action through mass organizations.
For the Party to fail to enlist the forces of social organizations and
try to do the revolutionary work all by itself would mean, in effect, to
negate the leadership role of the Party.
The work of the mass organizations is, at the same time, the work of
our Party. It is to carry out the Party’s policies among the masses and to
work for the Party. In some factories not only the social organizations
are conducting their educational work poorly, but the Party
organizations as well are not making any great effort in this respect,
with the result that immediate economic tasks are carried out in a
willy-nilly way.
Meanwhile, from day to day, you spend your time examining
people’s ideology. The central guidance group and the provincial Party
guidance group come down and conduct ideological examinations.
Such examinations only give rise to complaints. Educating people to
rectify their mistakes of their own accord will be the correct
ideological examination. Instead, people are not educated but are
threatened with regard to their Party spirit and are pressured willy-nilly
to confess to their supposed misdeeds. So they are compelled to
criticize themselves, saying that everything is their fault. This sort of
ideological examination must be stopped.
Educational work should be the main task of both Party and social
organizations. It should be strengthened so that everyone-Party
members and non-Party people, men and women, young and old-may
fight with dedication, upholding the Party’s policies. Thus, everyone
should be made to raise his cultural and technical level consciously and
produce more, so that he exerts his energy to accomplish the cause of
socialist construction.
Only by organizing all this work properly, firmly building up the
Party and rallying the masses around it, can we successfully fulfil our
revolutionary task.
We all know that this year’s industrial production plan is an
enormous one. This year, the workers have resolved to more than
double last year’s industrial output.
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You are now waging an all-out struggle to put your words into
deeds. Even if you fail to carry out your pledge, the state plan must be
realized at all costs.
The plan is, of course, somewhat lower than the pledge of the
working people, but it is quite high from the point of view of our rate of
growth. The state plan must be fully carried out.
A struggle should be waged not only to realize and exceed the plan
as a whole but also to implement it in all its indices, and decisively to
improve the quality of products.
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DISABLED SOLDIERS SHOULD LIVE
IN A GOOD WAY AND ALWAYS
WITH OPTIMISM
Talk with Members of the Unggi Disabled Soldiers’
Daily-Necessities Producers’ Cooperative
March 16, 1959
The Unggi Disabled Soldiers’ Daily-Necessities Producers’
Cooperative is successfully implementing the decision of the June
1958 Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee. You encourage
your dependents to collect shells from the seashore with which to make
various kinds of beautiful handicrafts. The cost of a silver carp
ornament made of shells is 1.5 won and that is very reasonable. You
also make nice buttons with locally available raw materials. This is a
very good thing. In future you should produce more daily necessities of
a wider variety with local materials and keep reducing the cost of
products, thereby making a better contribution to improving the
people’s livelihood.
Our disabled soldiers were all wounded while fighting heroically in
the honourable cause of the country. Just now a comrade has said he
was wounded in a battle on Mt. Solak in Rinje County, Kangwon
Province. Our People’s Army fought well in this battle. They
encountered Syngman Rhee’s most vicious “Paekgol Unit”, which was
hard hit and destroyed. The comrade who has bums on his body, has
said he was wounded in the Mundungri battle in the vicinity of Height
1211. This battle was as fierce as the one on Height 1211, which was
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indeed a most arduous and fierce one. Almost every day the enemy
dropped gasoline barrels as well as tens of thousands of bombs and
shells on that height. But it was the enemy which suffered defeat in the
long run. In those days our young People’s Army fought a heroic,
death-defying battle to defend the height to the end.
You really fought well during the Fatherland Liberation War. As
you and other officers and men of our People’s Army risked your lives
when fighting for every hill and every inch of our land in those days,
we could emerge victorious over the US imperialists who boasted of
being the “mightiest” in the world. That is why I am most happy
whenever I find myself with you.
The disabled soldiers should remember their feats performed
during the Fatherland Liberation War and work better and build their
lives well.
You should refrain from drinking too much liquor. This is harmful
to your health. All the disabled soldiers shed their blood in the fight for
the country in the past, so they should be disciplined in their
organizational life and conscious of all their work.
Besides this, the disabled soldiers should be optimistic. I was told
that you have national musical instruments and see films three or four
times a month. This is a good thing. You should be always cheerful and
optimistic and live a cultural life.
The disabled soldiers’ wives should do good housekeeping and
perform their work well. The dependents must be having much trouble
in living with their disabled husbands. They should work well, being
proud in living with the disabled husbands who got injured while
fighting admirably for the country. They should play the part of their
husbands’ limbs, to take good care of their husbands and bring up their
children properly.
Cadres should show deep interest in the work and life of the
disabled soldiers lest they should have any inconvenience. They
should provide ample conditions for them to study and live a cultural
life. When they volunteer to do something laudable, they should
actively support them and solve all their problems. The six-feet lathe
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these comrades have asked for should be supplied to them
immediately.
I should like to stress once more that the disabled soldiers should
launch tireless efforts to carry on with their good jobs and always live
with optimism.
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ON IMPROVING THE WORK
OF THE HOERYONG COUNTY
PARTY ORGANIZATION
Speech at a Plenary Meeting of the Hoeryong
County Party Committee
March 19, 1959
Comrades,
Yesterday I heard the report of the Party Central Committee
guidance group on the work carried out by the Hoeryong County Party
and Hoeryong County People’s Committees. The message in that
report is identical to that in the report submitted to today’s plenary
meeting.
I would like to take this opportunity to speak about efforts to
improve the work of the county Party and people’s committees.
I would first like to dwell on how the county Party committee
should do its work.
What is most important in the work of the county Party committee
is to get all the Party organizations within the county to firmly adhere
to the line of the Party Central Committee and thoroughly put it into
effect.
The Party is a revolutionary organization of the highest form made
up of the most progressive and conscious workers, peasants and
working intellectuals. The vanguard role in all revolutionary work is
played by the Party organization. Democratic centralization should be
firmly ensured and a voluntary strict discipline established within the
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Party. Without this the Party cannot lead millions of people and
advance the revolution.
The Party’s democratic centralization means mapping out its line
and policy and electing its leadership according to the will of the
masses of Party members and getting the leadership to guide in a
uniform way the struggle to put them into effect.
Democratic centralization is the organizational principle of our
Party. In other words, our Party has been formed on the basis of the
combination of centralization and full democracy and carries out its
activities in accordance with the principle of democratic centralization.
The source of our Party’s might lies precisely in democratic
centralization.
The Party Central Committee is the brain of the Party and the
General Staff of the revolution. It is the highest leading organ of the
Party which, representing the will of the entire membership, organizes
and guides the work for implementing the Party’s line and policy
between its congresses.
The line and policy of the Party are discussed and decided upon at
its congress by delegates representing members. Therefore, they do not
reflect the will of a few people within the Central Committee but the
will of all Party members.
The Party Central Committee elected at its congress carries out its
work until the convening of the next congress, in accordance with the
line and policy adopted at the congress as well as the decision of the
Party Central Committee. It convenes its plenary meetings from time
to time to discuss and decide upon measures for the implementation of
the congress decisions. Furthermore, it guides all Party organizations
in their endeavour to carry out the line and policy of the Party and the
decisions of its Central Committee, just as the headquarters in the army
commands the units in battle.
In this way, the Party performs its work on the principle of
democratic centralization. Therefore, it can act as a united organization
and can always move its ra nk s uniformly in the direction required by
the prevailing situation. If the Party lacks a revolutionary discipline
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whereby its entire membership moves united under the unique
guidance of its Central Committee, it cannot activate the state and lead
the revolution. Moreover, without such unified guidance, the Party
cannot mobilize millions of the people for the decisive battle against
the class enemy nor can it achieve a victory in this struggle. Therefore,
it is the foremost duty of all the Party organizations and members to
unconditionally accept and thoroughly carry out the Party’s line and
policy, and the decisions and directives of its Central Committee and
follow its guidance without reservation. Only when they thoroughly
implement its line and policy, can our Party be a militant detachment.
Then, how about the work of the North Hamgyong provincial and
Hoeryong county Party organizations?
As far as I know about the work of these Party organizations this
time, it cannot be said that it has been completely separated from our
Party’s line. They all follow and obey the Party Central Committee and
strive to implement the Party’s policy.
In many aspects, however, they have taken a formal attitude
towards the Party’s policy and did not carry it out faithfully. They did
not even try to carry out parts of it. They boasted about their Party
work and also practised nepotism conniving with each other.
As far back as 1947 we came to North Hamgyong Province with a
Party Central Committee guidance group to inspect work on the spot.
At that time we gave guidance on the orientation of work for the Party
organization of this province, including the questions of getting rid of
parochialism and improving personnel affairs. Nevertheless, it did not
work as was indicated by the Party, thereby failing to overcome
parochialism that was persistent amongst the provincial officials and to
implement the Party’s personnel policy properly. I will not refer to it
any further today because I have no time; I will touch on it at the
plenary meeting of the provincial Party committee.
The formal attitude of the North Hamgyong provincial Party
organization towards the Party’s policy was clearly revealed in putting
into effect its agricultural policy.
As you all know, the Party mapped out a long time ago a clear
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policy regarding agriculture in North Hamgyong Province. In 1954 I
came to this province with vice-chairmen of the Party Central
Committee and many other cadres to give guidance on the spot and to
explain details on its tasks. Then I said that North Hamgyong Province
should plant cold-resistant crops which were suitable for its climate
and soil on a wide area, and I stressed this again when I came here in
1957. This was emphatically pointed out also in the decision on the
development of agriculture in North Hamgyong Province, which was
adopted at the December 1956 Plenary Meeting of the Party Central
Committee.
Geographically, North Hamgyong Province adjoins high mountains
on the north and has a coastline on the east. Consequently, in this place
the fog sets in for a long time whereas the sunshine lasts for only a
short period because of the cold and dry air coming down from Mt.
Paektu and the damp air coming up from the sea. This is why the crops
in this province are threatened by cold weather and suffer frost damage
early. The only measure against this is to plant cold-resistant crops.
This is the very reason why the Party Central Committee encourages
this province to cultivate these crops in large quantities.
During my guidance in North Hamgyong Province in 1954 I
stressed that people of mountainous regions should largely engage in
animal husbandry while planting fruit trees, raising bees and creating
bracken or mushroom fields. At the same time the coastline population
should breed large quantities of oysters, miyok seaweed, tangle,
shellfish and similar seafood. I told them to develop their economy in
such a way that the main stress would be put on agriculture in the
intermediate areas, and that agriculture should be combined with
stockbreeding or fishing in the mountainous and sea areas respectively.
Agro-stockbreeding and agro-fishing are the words I used while giving
on-the-spot guidance in North Hamgyong Province in 1954.
As we see, the Party’s policy with regard to agricultural
development in this province is clear.
However, according to what we have learned this time, no part of its
policy has been put into effect properly.
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The Party Central Committee instructed North Hamgyong Province
to grow large quantities of cold-resistant crops, but the officials here
have not carried out farming as instructed by the Party on the plea that
the grain was the best crop and other things. They did not extensively
cultivate potatoes, a cold-resistant crop; as for sugar beet, they gave up
after growing it for some time. As a result, they have even lost its seed.
So we are now buying the expensive seed from another country, and
have to transport it by plane.
Sugar beet is a highly profitable industrial crop and a good fodder
crop as well. No part of it is thrown away. From the beet itself we make
sugar, and the remaining parts and leaves are used as fodder. If we
plant sugar beet we can make money by obtaining sugar and raising
domestic animals with the fodder. It contains more than 10 per cent
sugar. We can gather at least 20 tons of sugar beet from one hectare of
land, and with this amount we will be able to produce two tons of
sugar. With this amount of sugar we can buy four to five tons of rice.
However, in North Hamgyong Province they did not grow this
highly profitable crop in accordance with the Party’s policy, but
cleared the land to turn it into paddy fields without permission to
cultivate rice which does not grow well. This time I discovered in Aoji
that people there also grew rice and, after failing in this, they replaced
the crop with barnyard grass. What is the use of turning the land into
paddy fields to plant this crop? The peasants had trouble in clearing the
land for the paddy fields and then in turning them again into dry fields.
As you do not implement the Party’s policy faithfully, it is only the
peasants who suffer hardships after all. You should learn a serious
lesson from this.
Yesterday I had a talk with peasants in the Changhyo Agricultural
Cooperative. They say that from now on they will grow sugar beet on a
large scale. I wonder why they say they will plant this crop now. Had
they started to cultivate it four or five years ago, as they were told by
the Party, their income would have increased considerably.
North Hamgyong Province has not implemented the Party’s policy
of making full use of the mountains and the sea. It is true that in some
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areas they tried to do something, but Hoeryong County did not
endeavour to carry out various secondary jobs by making use of the
mountains.
Hoeryong is widely known for its famous white apricot. As I said
when I came here five years ago, Hoeryong County will do a good
thing to plant white apricot in the mountains widely. If this county
grows plenty of this fruit, creates mulberry fields, raises honey bees
and creates pastures to breed a large number of cattle, sheep, rabbits
and other herbivorous animals, it can make up for the low yield of dry
field crops and improve the people’s living standard quickly. However,
it did not strive to do this.
I think there is nothing difficult in carrying out the Party’s policy on
doing extensive secondary jobs, by making use of the mountains. It
will do if you, firmly adhering to the policy of the Party Central
Committee, only discuss with the peasants what to plant and where to
plant it and what to make and where, and mobilize them to plant white
apricot, create pastures and cultivate pine mushrooms where
necessary. However, Hoeryong County did not organize this work
properly; worse still, it has kept the existing pasture idle without
making proper use of it. Otherwise, you would have largely solved the
fodder problem.
You not only failed to take measures for developing animal
husbandry by utilizing the mountains, but also frequently reorganized
the already existing stock-farm until you disrupted it. This is why the
meat problem remains unsolved.
When I instructed you to plant white apricot extensively in 1954, it
was meant for the well-being of the local population and of our
posterity. Notwithstanding this, you have not even planted a single
apricot. Why haven’t you done this when there are neither capitalists
nor landlords who will take them away from you. You have only to
plant wild apricot seed in fields, move saplings to other places and
afterwards graft them with white apricot trees. Then the white apricot
will grow alone and come into bloom and bear fruit. Why didn’t you do
this when there is nothing difficult about it? Had you planted white
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apricot five years ago, you would now be able to reap fruit from this
year. If you plant it now you will be able to eat the fruit only in five
years’ time; so, in the long run, you made it impossible to improve the
people’s living standard that much earlier. You have been entrusted to
work by the Party, so you should always devote all your efforts to put
into effect the Party’s instructions to make the people well-off.
However, you did not do so, but acted wrongly, causing
inconveniences to the people. This is a serious crime.
North Hamgyong Province did not strive hard to catch fish and
breed oysters, shellfish, miyok seaweed and such things in the sea, nor
did it breed fresh water fish in lakes and reservoirs. This province has
many places that are suitable for fresh water fish breeding. Looking
around the area of Sosura, I found many good lakes and reservoirs to
meet this purpose, but they are not being properly used.
Distortion of Party policy and many formalities in the execution of
its agricultural policy in North Hamgyong Province have brought
about grave consequences.
At present peasants in other provinces are well-off with a living
standard that has reached the level of middle peasants. However, this is
not the case with some peasants in North Hamgyong Province. This is
attributable to the fact that the Party organization of this province did
not follow the instructions of the Party Central Committee, failing to
firmly adhere to its line. Had it done its work in strict accordance with
the Party Central Committee’s line, all the peasants would already be
leading a better life.
Neither the Party members and peasants nor the instructors of the
county Party committee are to blame for this. The fault lies entirely in
the cadres of the leading Party organ. The subordinate officials of the
county Party committee work hard late into the night, but they are
vexed, for there is no progress despite their painstaking efforts. So it is
natural that they should only face problems and give up.
The responsible workers of the North Hamgyong provincial Party
organization adopted an attitude of strict formality in implementing the
Party’s policy, but they boast that their province is the best of all. This
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attitude about North Hamgyong Province has led the officials in this
province to become arrogant and spoilt them. If North Hamgyong
Province is the foremost one, it is so in that the population cannot have
vegetables, children are going about without clothes, and that the
peasants have to get loan grain. As a matter of fact, it is not wrong to
love one’s own native place and have pride in it. However, it is very
dangerous if one goes too far, and adopts the attitude that “North
Hamgyong Province is the foremost one” without adhering to the line
of the Party Central Committee.
Therefore, a serious political task confronting you now is to
thoroughly adhere to the line and policy of the Party Central
Committee, implement them to the end and firmly establish the Party
ideological system.
All officials and Party members should make a deep study of the
Party’s policy. A formal study and debate on Party policy make it
impossible to understand its theoretical and practical significance. You
should study it deeply and make it part of you. This is the only way for
you to live in accordance with the intention of the Party Central
Committee, put Party policy into effect thoroughly to meet your actual
conditions and confidently cope with any task without making any
errors.
You should not only understand the line and policy of the Party
Central Committee, but carry out good organizational work in order to
implement them. At present both the provincial and county Party
committee chairmen go about just to make speeches. So everyone
gives only the orientation, and no one organizes work meticulously for
the implementation of the Party’s policy. You should not work in this
way. Only the Party Central Committee is authorized to set forth the
orientation. The provincial and county Party committees are not organs
that give the orientation but are units that organize and execute work in
the province and county in accordance with the orientation put forward
by the Party Central Committee. The province and county should study
the policy adopted by the Party Central Committee, carefully arrange
matters to implement it in conformity with their own specific
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conditions and urge Party members and working people to carry it out.
To this end, the county Party workers should fully explain and
make the Party’s policy known to the masses.
Now the Party’s policy is not being carried out properly because it
is not being fully explained to the masses. I think there is no one among
our Party members who is aware of the Party’s policy and fails to
implement it. All our Party members and working people support the
Party Central Committee. If we explain the Party’s policy to the
peasants while talking with them, they unanimously support it and say
that they will do as told by the Party. If Party workers correctly and
rapidly make Party members and working people aware of the policies
put forward by the Party Central Committee, they will always strive to
carry them out by all means.
County Party officials should go amongst the Party members and
working people to explain the Party’s policy to them and discuss
measures for its implementation. They should hold discussions with
agricultural activists as well as experienced peasants and courageous
young people. After seeking out ways and means to carry out Party
policy in this way, they should mobilize Party members and working
people for its implementation.
If they come across difficult problems while carrying out Party
policy, they should lose no time in taking measures to find a solution.
For instance, if the cooperative members have a difficulty in raising
rabbits for lack of experience, a short course should be organized for
several days to teach them how to do it.
If the Party’s policy is to be thoroughly carried out, it is necessary to
mobilize Party members and working people effectively and, along
with this, assign concrete tasks to the county and ri people’s
committees for its enforcement.
What is important next in the work of the county Party committee is
to eradicate bureaucracy and establish a mass viewpoint among the
officials.
Bureaucracy is to be found everywhere-both within the Party and
government organs.
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In the past bureaucracy was seriously manifested amongst the
Hoeryong county Party workers. They did not mix with the lower
units, but only forced them to do things, sitting in their office.
Such extremely serious bureaucracy can be clearly found in the way
they guided the work of drawing up the agricultural production plan.
This plan should naturally be mapped out through full discussions
with peasants. Let us suppose the Ministry of Agriculture, or the
province, has made plans on how many hectares of land should be
allocated for sugar beet and potato crops respectively. After that the
county officials should go to each cooperative to draw up a detailed
plan by consulting its members, a plan which should indicate where
and how many hectares of land should be planted with sugar beet and
potato. Then the county Party committee should discuss it, take
measures for its fulfilment and entrust the county people’s committee
with the work. That will be right. A good agricultural production plan
can be mapped out if the county Party committee chairman discusses it
with the peasants, staying at each ri for a couple of days. Hoeryong
County is said to have 17 ri. So one month will be enough to make a
round of every cooperative for detailed guidance of the work of
drawing up agricultural production plans. If the tour is started around
the 15th of January, this work can be completed by the 15th of
February. Had this work been done well, a detailed agricultural plan
would have already been mapped out. However, instead of doing this,
the Hoeryong county Party workers sat in their office, ordering their
subordinates what to plant and where to plant it, which was unfit for
their actual conditions. They ordered the planting of maize in places
suitable for sorghum, and sorghum instead of potato. So it is natural
that farming could not be successful.
Bureaucracy implies precisely that officials fail to go amongst the
people and mix with them, distrust their strength and only impose their
own opinion and order about without caring whether work is going
well or not.
Bureaucracy is manifested not only amongst the county Party
workers but also, to a large measure, amongst the officials of
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provincial Party committee and of the Ministry of Agriculture. This
time in North Hamgyong Province I have found that the officials of the
Ministry of Agriculture had issued instructions to amalgamate the
agro-stock farms and such things, remaining in the capital even
without going to the spot. According to their instructions the officials
at the lower levels made much fuss in amalgamating the farms
unnecessarily.
Bureaucracy has nothing to do with our Party’s style of work. It can
be permitted only in the state institutions of a capitalist society which
exploits and oppresses the working people, but not in our Party and
state organs which strive in their interests.
The officials in Party and state organizations should uproot
bureaucracy and establish a revolutionary mass viewpoint. If leading
personnel, and Party workers in particular, do not rely on the masses
and work in their interests, they could not follow our Party. Should our
Party fail to win the full confidence of the masses and rally them
around it, it cannot build communism successfully.
The building of communism is aimed to make all people well-off
on an equal basis. Therefore, the masses should take part in this work
and all the people should strive for communism. The revolution can be
accomplished through the efforts of the masses, and not by a couple of
persons. Success in the revolution depends on the implementation of
the mass line.
If we communists are to free the working masses from exploitation
and oppression, and succeed in building a communist society, we
should strengthen the Party and thoroughly carry out the mass line to
rally the masses around the Party and inspire them to participate in the
revolutionary struggle. This is the basic duty of the Party organizations
and one of the most important tasks in the work of our Party. Following
the last February Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee I
gave a long lecture on this matter.
If the mass line is to be implemented to rally the masses around the
Party, it is first important to give a greater role to the Party members by
intensifying education on the Party’s policy amongst them.
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By intensifying this education amongst the Party members, you
should induce all of them to become more aware of the Party’s policy,
think and act with one mind and will with the Party Central Committee
anywhere and anytime, strive for the implementation of the Party’s
policy and explain and make information work on it amongst the
non-Party masses.
In order to rally the masses around the Party, it is also important to
strengthen relations with them. This is the source of the indestructible
might of the Party. Party workers should firmly rely on the masses in
their work and, at the same time, educate and train them so that they
will themselves uphold the intention of the Party and follow it,
confident of the prospects of our revolution and the correctness of the
Party’s policy. In this way they will grow to be indomitable
revolutionary fighters, always ready to go into action if called so by the
Party.
Joining hands with primary Party organizations, the county Party
committee should mobilize the trade unions, the Democratic Youth
League and the Women’s Union and other social organizations to
conduct vigorous information work on the Party’s policy amongst the
non-Party masses. They should carry out this work amongst the
workers, young people and women through the trade unions, the
Democratic Youth League and the Women’s Union respectively.
Information work for different strata should be performed in
various forms and methods. You should not merely hold meetings and
lectures all the time in a simple way, but apply various methods such as
talks, reading sessions and story-telling gatherings. Information work
should be conducted even for two or three persons. It is good to
intensively apply the method of talks.
If the Party workers are to conduct convincing information work on
the Party’s policy, they should read many novels and other literature to
enrich their cultural knowledge. If in your talks with the masses after
having read many novels, you first refer to an interesting story to
attract their attention and then go over to the information work on the
Party’s policy, it will be a very effective method.
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In order to transform all the working people into fighters with a
high degree of political and ideological consciousness for the
revolution and communism, it is necessary to explain things to them
and persuade them in a persistent manner. However, instead of doing
this in order to make the masses voluntarily join the revolution with a
confidence in our cause, some Party organizations at present
frequently send for people to threaten and criticize them, claiming that
their origin is bad, and that they lack Party spirit and so on. It is of no
use to press and criticize people who have not been educated. If you are
to bend a dry tree, you should wet it in the water first. If you try to bend
it with force, it will break. Likewise, you will not be able to re-educate
people merely by holding meetings to examine their Party spirit or
forcing them to make self-criticism, without patiently educating them
through explanation and persuasion. As a matter of fact, we should
fight against the practices which hinder the strengthening of the
ideological unity of the Party and violate its discipline. However, we
should not press and examine them in an unreasonable way. This is an
administrative method.
Party organs should transform people through persuasion and
education, not by an administrative method. Public security organs or
public prosecutors offices rule the people by an administrative method.
However, Party bodies are not ruling organs but organs to re-educate
people, like when the mother teaches her children. In bringing up her
children, the mother does not rebuke or beat them up but loves and
educates them and provides them with good living conditions so that
they may grow up well. Likewise, Party organizations should always
teach and educate Party members and non-Party masses and take good
care of them.
As I said at the short course for factory Party organizers and county
Party chairmen, Party workers should be the standard-bearers in their
work who lead the masses, and in their relations with people, they
should be their “mother”. To this end, they should fully understand the
Party’s policy, become experienced in their work and be honest and
simple in work and life.
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What is next important in the work of the county Party committee is
not to take over administrative work but to strengthen political
guidance and control over it.
Administrative work is a task for administrative officials. The
county Party committee should not take over this work, but give
effective assistance to the Party members in administrative organs, so
that they become acquainted with the Party’s policy and, abiding by it,
do administrative work properly.
The overwhelming majority of administrative officials, including
those of the county people’s committee, are Party members. Take the
Hoeryong County People’s Committee, for instance. Only eight out of
the 83 staff members are non-Party members. Therefore, it is important
to encourage the Party members who are working in the county
people’s committee and other administrative organs to hold fast to the
Party stand and carry out their tasks with success. All work in the
county can progress smoothly if the county Party committee properly
educate these Party members and guide and control them so that they
do their work well.
Therefore, the county Party committee should, first of all, inform the
Party members working in the county people’s committee and other
administrative and economic institutions, of the policies occasionally
adopted by the Party as well as the decisions of the superior Party
organizations. Our Party’s policy is worked out at the plenary meetings
of the Party Central Committee and at its Presidium, and is conveyed to
Party committees at all levels. So, they are the first to be acquainted with
Party policy. Of course, there are decisions that are issued by the
Cabinet. However, the Cabinet adopts its decisions on the basis of the
decisions or directives of the Presidium of the Party Central Committee.
All the important problems concerning the policy are first discussed and
decided upon at this Presidium. Then they go over to the Cabinet and are
simultaneously sent down to the provincial and county Party
committees. Every time it receives the Party’s policy and decisions the
county Party committee should convey them to the Party members in
administrative organs, including the county people’s committee, not to
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mention its own officials, and should do organizational and political
work so that they implement them correctly.
Meanwhile, it should supervise and control the work of the county
people’s committee and other administrative organs. This should not
be done by a few instructors of the county Party committee through the
method of disclosing shortcomings; it is advisable to do it by
inspection. Inspection should be made by the county Party officials by
going out to take part in Party meetings and have talks with Party
members and non-Party activists. If inspection is made in this way, it
will be possible to know quite well how work in administrative organs
is progressing.
I would like to stress once more that in the work of the county Party
committee, it is important, first of all, to induce all the organizations
and officials in the county to closely follow the line of the Party
Central Committee and think and act with one mind and will; secondly,
to eradicate bureaucracy and establish a revolutionary mass viewpoint
amongst the officials; thirdly, not to take over administrative work but
strengthen political guidance and control over it.
Next, the county Party committee should conduct personnel affairs
properly.
After correctly working out the Party’s line and policy, it is necessary
to select and assign cadres properly. As you all know, it is impossible to
expect success in work by merely mapping out a correct policy. If the
Party’s policy is to be carried out, we need cadres who work tirelessly
and energetically and are faithful to the Party and the revolution.
Success in all work is determined by the cadres. To understand cadres
and assign them to the right place is an important condition ensuring
success in work. Work goes well where tested and qualified cadres are
assigned and fails where this is not the case. Therefore, our Party puts
forward personnel affairs as its foremost task.
In the past Party organizations at all levels have achieved some
success in personnel affairs, yet they still have many shortcomings in
understanding, selecting and assigning cadres. Party organizations
should correct these defects as soon as possible and improve this work.
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What is important in personnel affairs is to select and assign those
officials who are faithful to the Party and competent, and continue
educating them.
The criterion for the selection and assigning of cadres should be the
level of political and ideological qualifications and practical abilities.
Only those who have such high qualifications and abilities are worthy
to be cadres.
The most important thing for cadres is loyalty to the Party. Loyalty
to the Party means defending the Party Central Committee,
maintaining Party spirit in the struggle for the unity and cohesion of the
Party and always striving to implement Party policy. We cannot regard
those who keep their position without doing anything like a dummy or
Buddha as people who are faithful to the Party. We consider as faithful
to our Party and the communist cause those who support our Party and
work actively while firmly standing on our side.
The second important thing for cadres is practical abilities. Cadres
should have the ability to do their work satisfactorily. In other words,
they should have a wealth of knowledge and experience and
organizational ability. When asked something about their work, some
people say they do not know how to answer because of poor practical
ability; nevertheless, they do not strive to improve their practical
ability and become experienced in their work. Such people are not
worthy to be cadres.
We cannot separate political-ideological qualifications and
practical abilities from each other when considering the qualities of
cadres. Here the most important thing is political and ideological
qualifications. It is true that one cannot be faithful to the Party if one
does not have practical abilities. However, if one has some practical
abilities but lacks loyalty to the Party, one is of no use. There are now
people among cadres who have some knowledge and experience but
lack Party spirit. We do not need such people, because they are not on
the side of our Workers’ Party. Those who side with our Workers’
Party are people determined to overthrow the landlords and capitalists
and build communism. We need people who show loyalty to the Party
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and the revolution, that is, people who stand by our Party and
communism and fight in their interests while risking their lives. Even if
one is somewhat poor in practical ability, one can soon make
improvement during work if one is firmly determined to be faithful to
the Party.
One’s loyalty to the Party and the revolution is not always
determined by one’s class origin. Some people now think that all sons
of former landlords or rich peasants cannot fight for communism. They
should not continue doing so. Amongst them are people who, having
received revolutionary education, supported us and joined us in
fighting against the system of landlords and capitalists. Even the sons
of landlords or rich peasants can join us in the struggle for communism
if they transform their ideology.
Loyalty to the Party should be shown by deeds. We should always
bear in mind that there are people who claim that they fight for the
Party and communism, but in practice oppose the Party Central
Committee and do evil things. We should determine, through a
practical struggle, how loyal cadres are to the Party and communism.
This should be followed by the examination of their practical
abilities. It is still better if one supports the Party without reservation
and also has know-how and working experience, as well as
organizational ability. The Party Rules explicitly stipulate the criteria
for cadres.
Party organizations should regard loyalty to the Party as the
imperative criterion and combine this with practical criterion to select
and assign cadres to the right place.
You should not limit the personnel affairs to understanding,
selecting and assigning people to the right place. After assigning
cadres, you should always educate and help them.
Otherwise, they will become mentally rusty and degenerate in the
end. If you truly love cadres, you should always examine their work,
help them and kindly make them realize their mistakes. This is true
comradely assistance, education and control.
At present some cadres not only regard inspection as an annoyance
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but even fear it. This is happening because inspection is not being
conducted regularly so that it could be of help to them, and when
conducted, it is done in such a way that they find faults in the work of
cadres, reprove them or dismiss them. You should not conduct
inspection just when it crosses your mind, without doing it regularly, or
discharge people at random after inspection. As they are dismissed
after inspection, people at the lower levels do not accept inspection
with an open mind but fear it and tell lies.
Inspection should be conducted in such a way as to spot
shortcomings in work and correct them, help the cadres and reason
with them. Only then will cadres react positively to inspection. During
my 30-odd-year revolutionary work I have always educated cadres
along set principles and regularly inspected their work. Therefore, the
comrades who fought together with me in the past, were worried when
their work was not inspected. They said they were sad because their
work was not inspected, for they wanted inspection to be conducted
before things went wrong and shortcomings, if there were any, to be
corrected. After assigning cadres, you should frequently inspect their
work and help them.
Party organizations should train cadres in the same way as parents
do with their children. They should value and love cadres and educate
them properly, as a mother loves her children, reasons with them and
looks after them. The county Party committee should constantly look
after and educate the cadres of the county people’s committee, the
county internal security station, other county organs and the ri. The
workers of the county Party committee should always meet them and
talk to them, exchanging views with them, reasoning with them on
their mistakes, if there are any and correcting them. Each time they
meet cadres, they should teach them something new and inform them
of new problems.
If the county Party committee scrupulously selects and assigns
cadres and gives them constant education, they will be grateful to it for
its guidance. If cadres receive constant education, their political and
practical qualifications will be rapidly upgraded and all work in the
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county will take a favourable turn. Farming, stockbreeding and cultural
work will be done smoothly.
An important question in Party personnel affairs is to enhance the
level of qualifications of county Party instructors.
These instructors conduct their work in constant contact with the
masses at factories and rural villages. Therefore, they should be skilful
in the work they perform amongst the masses.
What is most important in enhancing their level of qualifications is
to properly make them aware of the Party’s line and policy.
They are duty bound to explain and make information work on the
Party’s line and policy amongst the masses and do organizational work
for their implementation. Therefore, making them fully aware of the
Party’s line and policy is a very urgent matter in raising their level of
qualifications. County Party instructors should be acquainted with
Party policy, like the instructors of the Party Central Committee. This
is the only way for them to live together with the Party Central
Committee, correctly explain the Party intentions to the masses and do
good organizational work in order to implement them. Flowever, at
present county Party instructors are not acquainted with the Party’s
policy well.
For the prompt acceptance and implementation of the Party’s
policy, as soon as a new policy and decision are taken, the Party
Central Committee explains them to the ministries and central organs
as well as to provincial Party committees through the medium of the
directors, deputy directors, section chiefs and the lecturers of the Party
Central Committee; and the provincial Party committees then explain
them to the city and county Party committees. The Party Central
Committee requires that the county Party instructors go to factories
and rural villages to explain and make information work on the Party’s
policy so that all Party members and people become fully acquainted
with the intention of the Party Central Committee. Flowever, this is not
the case now. This is happening because the county Party instructors
do not understand the Party’s policy well. As a matter of fact, this
greatly hinders Party work.
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Notwithstanding this, in the past the Hoeryong County Party
Committee did not do a good job in making its instructors more aware
of the Party’s policy and improving their qualifications.
Some county Party chairmen are said to have worked only with
vice-chairmen but not with department directors and instructors. The
same can be said for the Hoeryong County Party Committee. In this
way the directors and instructors cannot improve their qualifications
nor can they ever make progress. It is even said that officials in charge
of the Hoeryong County Party Committee look at the Party resolutions
themselves only to put them away afterwards. So it is only natural that
the instructors are unaware of the Party intentions and thus they cannot
say anything new at factories or in the countryside. The chairman of
the management board of a certain agricultural cooperative here says
that he only works with the vice-chairmen or department directors of
the county Party committee but never deals with the instructors, and
that he does not regard them as people who give guidance. This is not
accidental. As the instructors go about without knowing the Party
intentions, such things can be said by the people.
The senior officials of the county Party committee have not always
got the time to work at the lower units. So they should improve the
qualifications of the instructors and, through them, work with their
subordinates.
At present the Party Central Committee is very strong and its level
of guidance is high. Its work method has now greatly improved over
three or four years ago. This is attributable to the enhancement of the
instructors’ qualifications. What instructors of the Party Central
Committee say is identical with what I say. When a decision of the
Presidium is taken, the Chairman and Vice-Chairmen of the Party
Central Committee convene the department directors, deputy-directors
and instructors to tell them; such a policy has been put forward this
time, its political and economic significance is this, we are going to
implement it in such a way, there may appear such a tendency in the
course of its implementation and so you should be aware of this. As
even the instructors are informed in time of the intentions of the Party
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leadership, the Chairman, Vice-Chairmen, directors and instructors
breathe, think and speak alike. So I have “many heads and eyes,” so to
speak. The fact that instructors who observe and think just like me, go
amongst the masses to work and share good and bad experiences with
them, could be considered, in the end, as if 1 had personally gone
amongst them.
The county Party committee should also work in this manner. The
county Party chairman should not only be acquainted with the Party
decisions and directives, but should inform the instructors about them
in time and discuss with them the measures for implementing the
Party’s policy. In this way what the county Party chairman says, and
what the instructors do should be identical. It is not right if this man
says one thing and that man another.
If the county Party chairman does not make the instructors aware of
the Party’s policy, they will carry out their guidance without knowing
it. This will only expose them to ridicule and in the end undermine the
prestige of the Party. All the new policies put forward by the Party
Central Committee are published in the newspapers. So, if the
instructors carry out their guidance work without knowing them, their
subordinates will say that it would be better for them to read the papers
themselves rather than listen to them. In the long run, the instructors
will lose the confidence of their subordinates.
Senior county Party workers should organize short courses and
debates on the policies and measures taken by the Party to thoroughly
explain the Party intentions to the instructors. You should hold a short
course and debate on Party documents and Party work for some ten
days to make the instructors fully aware of the Party Central
Committee’s intention, before sending them to meet subordinates.
If he is to thoroughly explain the intentions of the Party Central
Committee to his instructors, the county Party chairman himself
should first make a deep study of the Party’s policy. The county Party
chairmen should know all the problems discussed by the Party Central
Committee. The Party Central Committee continuously makes
decisions, notifications, material on Party life and similar things.
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County Party chairmen should read them all. However, a certain
county Party chairman is said to go about even without reading the
Rodong Sinmun. Without reading the Party organ, one cannot know its
intentions.
Party workers should also make it a routine to read newspapers and
magazines, not to mention the decisions and directives of the superior
Party organs. They should study for three or four hours every day. If
you are to have time for your study, you should meticulously organize
your work and improve your method of guidance.
Now I should like to speak on the work of the county people’s
committee.
Being a government organ which falls under the leadership of the
Party, the county people’s committee should naturally be guided by the
county Party committee. The chairman, vice-chairmen, department
directors of the county people’s committee and almost all other
officials of the committee are Party members. Therefore, from the
organizational point of view, the county people’s committee should
also receive the guidance of the county Party committee. This time 1
am not going to refer any more to the relationship between the Party
and government.
The county people’s committee should map out its work plan and
assign work under the leadership of the county Party committee, in
accordance with the Party’s policy, and always consult the Party
committee on problems arising in its work. It should also discuss them
with the provincial people’s committee, a superior organ. After
reaching agreements on some problems through consultation with
these committees, the county people’s committee should submit them
to the county people’s assembly in order to implement them. As the
Korean saying goes “you must ask your way even when you know it,”
it is not wrong to ask something you already know. One may be doing
a mistake by dealing with problems alone. The more there are
discussions, the better. Therefore, you should not regard it as an
inconvenience to ask and consult others.
Our Party recently took measures to extend the authority of the
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local government organs and enhance their functions. Many of the
functions performed by the central authority have been transferred to
the local government organs. Therefore, the provincial and county
people’s committees have now more work to do. Our directive to keep
the apparatus of the county people’s committee as it is, is also related
to this. In the past when local cadres were not fully qualified and their
level of guidance was not high, the central authority took over much of
the guidance work. However, there is no need for this now, as the local
officials’ level has been enhanced to a certain extent. As for the central
authority, it should only map out the policy; much powers should be
given to the local government organs, the city and county people’s
committees in particular, which carry out their work in direct contact
with the masses. And their leading functions over production and
construction, commerce, procurement and culture should also be
enhanced. This will increase the activity and creativity of the local
officials and enlist more people in state administration and in the
management of production.
The county people’s committee has a lot of things to do: work of
supply to state-run industries, guidance of local industries, of the rural
economy as a whole, including the management of agricultural
cooperatives, and of the fishing industry, transportation by truck and
cart, construction in the county seat and the countryside, cultural
development, guidance of the trade, public health and education
sectors, procurement work, road building, river improvement,
prevention of floods, afforestation and water conservation, creation
and conservation of forests, collection of tax, population census,
security work in the county and so on. Indeed, the county has very
much work to do. Now that the scope of work of local people’s
committees has incomparably extended than in the past, our Party
demands that these committees decisively improve their work.
On many occasions I have stressed the need to improve and
strengthen the work of the county people’s committee. In particular, in
my report made at the 10th anniversary of the founding of the
Republic, I presented it as the most important task confronting the
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Government of the Republic to strengthen the work of the people’s
committees. However, so far there has been no apparent change in their
work. At present the county people’s committees even fail to map out
proper plans. We held a meeting for chairmen of the planning boards
which fall under the county people’s committees. Yet, these boards
failed to play their proper role.
As for the agricultural production plan at the county people’s
committee, it is made in such a way that it is merely imposed on the
lower units in a bureaucratic manner. Following the steps of the county
Party committee, the county people’s committee also carries out other
work in this way. It only compiles statistics that are to be submitted to
higher authorities and copies their decisions or directives to send them
to lower units. If the county people’s committee works in this way, we
cannot quickly carry out the building of socialism nor can we rapidly
improve the people’s living standard.
It is very important to strengthen the work of the county people’s
committee. Being the lowest organ for administrative guidance and
simultaneously the lowest organ of administrative execution, the
county people’s committee is an important administrative unit.
Success in all work depends largely on the work of this committee.
Being such a unit, the county people’s committee should not issue
directives or official documents to its subordinate organs to tell them
what to do and how to do it. It should go directly to local factories and
trade, public health and procurement organs to plan and carry out the
work.
The county people’s committee should not take its work easily nor
should it do it as before. It is true that formerly this committee played
no more than the role of an intermediary. However, now it should
directly plan and carry out the work. Therefore, its work is more
difficult and complicated than before.
The most difficult and delicate thing in the work of the county
people’s committee is planning. In our country today industrial and
agricultural production, as well as distribution and consumption,
should be planned. Otherwise, there will be an imbalance between
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production and consumption. The same can be said about running of
schools and hospitals and about organization of trade and procurement
work. If we are to give timely treatment to people and education to all
children, we should run hospitals and schools according to a plan. You
should never manage your large economic affairs in a rule-of-thumb
way without a plan.
In the past when socialist economic relations were not fully
established and private economy persisted in agriculture, trade and
many other sectors, the county people’s committee could not guide all
work in the county in a unified and planned manner. However, now
that the private economy has been abolished and all economy replaced
by a socialistic system, the committee should plan and guide all the
economic affairs within the county in a uniform way. This is the only
way for all economic sectors in the county to be managed in a normal
manner. Therefore, the county people’s committee should improve its
work method and system to meet the developing realities and do all
work according to a plan.
However, this time we have learned that the work of the county
people’s committee falls short of such requirements. The committee
should not force down the plan in a bureaucratic way. Officials should
go amongst the masses to get to know the people’s opinions and the
actual state of affairs at the lower units so as to draw up the plan in
conformity with them. Bureaucratic methods will not solve the
question.
As the work of the county people’s committee is very complicated,
the officials of the committee should organize and carry out their work
in detail.
For example, let us take the problem of trade. There is now only
state and agricultural cooperative trade, but no private trade. In the past
when there was private trade, this played an auxiliary role to
complement state trade, even when it did not go well. As private
traders wandered from place to place to sell their goods, the population
could obtain its requirements, even though state trade was not run
properly. However, now that private trade has disappeared, state trade
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should be organized in a more meticulous way. Only then will it be
possible to supply goods to the population in a smooth way. The
county wholesale house should always secure plenty of commodities
demanded by the population without running out of supplies and
distribute them properly. You should send them to the rural, fishing or
mountainous villages, according to their respective needs.
Let us now talk about agriculture. Prior to agricultural
cooperativization, it was easy for the county people’s committee to
guide agriculture. Then this committee did not find it necessary to
intervene and see whether private farmers sowed barley, raised
chickens or pigs. All it had to do was just to establish a standard plan
and control its implementation. However, now things are not as they
were. All the peasants have joined the cooperative economy to become
one family. There are 17 ri in Hoeryong County. As a result of the
amalgamation of agricultural cooperatives, with each ri as the unit, the
number of households in the county so to speak is not considered to be
thousands, but virtually 17. The county people’s committee should not
give guidance to the agricultural cooperatives in such a way as to show
lack of interest whether these 17 households will plant crops and raise
animals or not. When farming was done individually, the head of each
household was responsible for his household affairs. However, now
that cooperativization has been realized, along with the ri people’s and
Party committees which are the heads of the 17 households, the county
people’s and Party committees should also be held responsible for
providing good food and clothes to tens of thousands of cooperative
farmers, who have become like one family. In the days of private
farming households where heads only drank liquor and loathed work,
were badly off but those where the heads were wise and diligent, and
managed their household affairs meticulously, were well-off.
Likewise, now that cooperativization has been realized, peasants in
those ri and counties whose Party and people’s committees have a high
sense of responsibility and carry out the Party’s policy conscientiously,
are faring well while the others are not.
Although the Hoeryong County People’s Committee officials are
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working in the interests of the people in conformity with the Party’s
policy, they create great inconveniences for the population in its
livelihood because they work in an irresponsible and haphazard way
without a plan. For example, the county seat has only one noodle shop
because the committee has failed to organize satisfactory welfare
services for the population. Therefore, they say it is very difficult to
obtain a bowl of noodle. The same can be said for public health
services. Formerly, private doctors opened a number of Korean
medicine hospitals, children’s hospitals and Korean medicine
dispensaries and similar centres in the county seat. But now it has only
the county hospital and clinics. Furthermore, the medical workers are
not kind and efficient and do not procure the necessary medicines
regularly. Therefore, the population claims it is difficult to get
medicines. It is not right to cause inconveniences to the people in their
life, while you claim to be building a socialist society where all the
people will lead an affluent life. The county people’s committee should
build more noodle houses, open Korean medicine cooperatives and
dispensaries and such things and increase the number of welfare
facilities so as to improve services for the population.
The county should give effective guidance to producers’
cooperatives and local factories.
In the days of private handicraftsmen, they made various kinds of
daily necessities through manual methods. However, a large amount
of such necessities are now produced at local factories and
producers’ cooperatives. Nevertheless, they are not being produced
at a normal rate because of a lack of raw materials and technicians. If
the local raw materials and technicians are used properly, it will be
possible to produce all sorts of things: iron, cement and as many
cheap, serviceable and good-quality daily necessities of various
kinds as we want. Therefore, the county people’s committee should
mobilize them all and fully operate the local factories and producers’
cooperatives, thereby producing large quantities of good-quality
daily necessities.
The county people’s committee officials should not remain sitting
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waiting for jobs, but energetically push ahead with their work by
creating a new job after the completion of the one under way. There is
much work for the county to do: it should level roads, build bridges,
improve river conditions, undertake afforestation and water
conservation, prevent forest fires, build schools and also carry out the
cultural revolution. You should encourage the people to keep the
schools and villages neat and tidy, plant trees and build flower gardens
there, paper the walls of their homes, wash their clothes frequently and
wash themselves regularly. However, these things are not done
satisfactorily. As a result, the residential quarters and schools are very
dirty. The office building of the county people’s committee is not
clean, either.
Our working people should build everything in a cultural way.
Capitalists look down upon the workers labelling them as uncivilized
people. But all the nice things they use are the products of the workers.
It is the workers who make excellent planes and trains, as well as
lorries and tractors. It is also no one else but the workers who weave
good-quality silk fabrics. Then, why are the workers failing to keep
their factories and houses where they work and live clean? Who is to
blame for this? It is because the county Party and people’s committees
have failed to properly play their role as the master.
When I came to North Hamgyong Province in 1954, I gave
instructions to repair all the vacant houses. However, up to now many
of these houses still remain unrepaired. It is five years since I gave my
instructions for this. However, a look at your residential quarters
reveals that you have done nothing.
The county people’s committee chairman told me yesterday that he
fails to work well because he is incompetent. So I reproved him: If you
were incompetent, how could you have been able to participate in the
peasants’ association movement in the past? You served a prison term
and what was that for? Did you carry out a revolution to make the
people lead a poor life?
We did not make a revolution to let the people live a mean life. I
waged my revolutionary struggle to make our country a civilized and
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prosperous one so that all Koreans can lead a good life. In making a
revolution we aim to build a socialist and communist society where all
the people will enjoy a good life. Those who strive for the building of a
communist society should work hard without sleep even after
eliminating the landlords and capitalists and seizing power. They should
not try to lead a leisured life taking advantage of the fact that they had
made a revolution, and sit cross-legged only to give commands.
In the immediate post-liberation days, even if the county people’s
committee chairmen failed to play their role properly, it could be
tolerated somehow. If their improper guidance in trade resulted in a
gap, private traders would fill it. However, now things have changed
drastically. If one thing goes wrong, it will have immediate effect on
the people’s livelihood, causing them inconveniences. For instance, if
the provincial or the county people’s committee fails to organize the
supply of vegetables in a responsible way, they will go rotten in some
areas, whereas others will not be able to get them. Last year peasants in
Hwadae County produced large quantities of radish, but faced big
problems because they could not sell it. On the other hand, workers in
Chongjin could not pickle vegetables because they did not have radish.
Who is to blame for this? It is the provincial and county people’s
committees. Private merchants would have tried all means and ways to
bring all the radish to Chongjin to earn money. Capitalists and
merchants did this sort of thing in the past, but now the people’s
committee should be held responsible to undertake such a task.
People’s committee officials who are making a revolution should
know how to organize production and distribution, if they are to serve
the people faithfully. You should not just merely say that you are
making a revolution, but properly carry out your revolutionary tasks in
practice. Only then will you be able to move over to communism, but
you cannot do this if you fail to supply the working people with
vegetables properly, rendering it impossible for them even to pickle
vegetables as they should. A communist society is a society where the
productive forces are highly developed and the people are provided
with plenty of various goods.
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If county people’s committee officials are to fulfil their duty
satisfactorily, they should improve their political and practical
qualifications. If they do not strive to this end, they cannot keep pace
with developments. Even those who made a revolution in the past will
become old-fashioned if they do not try to improve their political and
practical qualifications today. At a time when all people are rushing
ahead with the free reins of Chollima, one cannot boast about one’s
insignificant record of past struggle. No matter whether one did make a
revolution in the past or not, every official should know how to
manage the economy according to plan. County people’s committee
officials should steadily learn, and improve their political and practical
qualifications as early as possible, as required by the changes of time.
Thus they will bring about a radical reform in improving their work
method and their practical ability.
Next I would like to refer to this year’s farming.
Last year Hoeryong County failed to fulfil its grain production plan
of 10,000 tons, by reaching a 95 per cent target. So it cannot but be
regarded as a backward county. While others are advancing at the
speed of Chollima, people in this county are only moving ahead at a
slow pace. While people everywhere else are boasting of their
achievements in surpassing the agricultural plan, Hoeryong County
has failed in its task. So this cannot but be a shameful thing.
I am not going to talk at length on this year’s farming. There is one
important principle with regard to agriculture in North Hamgyong
Province. That is to thoroughly carry out the Party’s policy on
cultivating a large amount of cold-resistant crops.
We discovered at the Changhyo Agricultural Cooperative that this
year it envisages to plant potatoes and maize over a large area. Its
agricultural plan appears to be a good one. They say they will reap 12
tons of potatoes per hectare of land whereas last year they gathered
only seven tons. I do not object to producing this amount of potatoes
per hectare of land. However, the peasants there do not seem to have
confidence yet in potato farming. Twelve tons per hectare of land is not
a very large amount. They can reap more than that. Potatoes thrive in
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cold areas. They grow well in Ryanggang and Jagang Provinces, as
well as in Musan in North Hamgyong Province. Potatoes, late ones in
particular, may thrive in the area around Hoeryong. Planting large
quantities of potatoes can safely guarantee a high yield. Maize may
also grow well in this area. You should investigate to see which crop
thrives-potatoes or maize, and allow a bigger proportion of land to
what gives a higher yield. You should plant high-yielding crops but
even if a crop is high-yielding, you should not plant it if it does not
thrive here. We cannot indicate everything in detail such as what and
how much to plant. You should plant crops which can guarantee a high
yield, in other words those crops which resist cold, ripen early and can
yield a good harvest.
You should plant fodder and industrial crops in wide areas. In my
opinion you will do a good thing to plant a large amount of sugar beet
which thrives in Hoeryong County. We are going to build a sugar
refinery here with the capacity of 10,000 to 15,000 tons, If we are to
obtain 10,000 tons of sugar, we should plant sugar beet at least on 5,000
hectares of land. Hoeryong County as a whole should produce large
quantities of sugar beet, and the seed should be supplied by the relevant
sector. Leading county officials should directly go to the ri to draw up a
good plan for the cultivation of sugar beet after discussions with the
peasants. If sugar beet yields per hectare of land are to be increased,
advanced methods of cultivation should be introduced on a large scale.
A large amount of manure should be applied and weeding carried out
frequently. Seed selection should also be organized properly. Before the
sugar refinery is built, sugar should be produced by the ri itself. There is
nothing mysterious about making sugar. You only have to put the sugar
beet into a pot and boil it. If the ri itself makes sugar for sale next year,
they can earn twice as much as this year.
Along with sugar beet, you should plant a large quantity of tobacco.
Tobacco is also a profitable crop. You can increase the peasants’
earnings considerably if you grow tobacco which thrives here.
Some old-fashioned peasants may complain about growing a large
amount of potatoes, maize, sugar beet and tobacco. Even so, you
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should not merely force them to do it or scold them but make them
fully realize its advantages.
North Hamgyong Province has a large number of workers, so an
important task confronting its agriculture is to produce large quantities
of vegetables and meat to supply them to the workers. This province
should produce large quantities of these things so that the working
people can have enough supplies.
In order to produce large quantities of meat, you should rapidly
develop animal husbandry. Hoeryong County in particular should raise
a great number of domestic animals.
In developing animal husbandry, much attention should be given to
collective breeding, while discouraging the private sector. If the latter
is allowed to do this on a large scale, it will foster individualism and
egoism. It will be a good thing to allow individuals to raise a couple of
sheep, goats and pigs and several chickens. They should not be allotted
a large area of kitchen garden. If cooperative farmers have a large
garden and privately own many domestic animals, they will only
dedicate themselves entirely to them without sincerely taking part in
the work of the cooperative. Therefore, rapid progress in stockbreeding
demands that collective breeding be widely encouraged while
individual breeding should be limited.
The agricultural cooperatives will do the right thing to raise fast¬
growing domestic animals such as sheep and rabbits.
Being herbivorous animals, they can be bred wherever there is
grass. Rabbit raising in particular has many advantages. It is good
because we need not consume grain for fodder and can produce tasty
meat, as well as fur and skin. We can make coats with its skin and the
fur can be used instead of cotton in making quilts. The rabbit breeds
very fast. A female can produce around 200 young a year. With these
200 rabbits we can produce 400 kilogrammes of meat. And with the
200 skins we can make 10 children’s coats. Raising many rabbits is
more advantageous than pig breeding. At the recent meeting of the
Presidium of the Party C entral C ommittee I stressed the need for North
Hamgyong Province to raise many rabbits to solve the meat problem
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and provide all children with rabbit fur coats. Thi s province should
strive to solve this problem. You should not only urge students to raise
rabbits but also make it the task of the entire population. You should
make sure that rabbits are bred at schools, institutions, cooperatives
and in every household.
Domestic animals such as milch cows, pigs, goats, chickens and
ducks should be raised in large numbers.
Of course, you will find it difficult to breed many pigs just now
because here the grain problem has not been completely solved.
However, you can raise as many milch cows, goats, chickens and
ducks as you want.
To begin with, you should raise many chickens. This should be
done both by every household and jointly at the cooperative. By raising
chickens you can get eggs. Eggs are, in other words, meat. A hen lays
200 eggs a year. If you obtain 10 jon for an egg, you can earn 20 won if
you have a hen. Chickens should not be given grain alone but also a
large amount of other fodder. And it is advisable to let them roam free.
Only then can you lower the cost of eggs. You should try every
possible means to raise many chickens so that all factory and office
workers and peasants can get eggs. Each agricultural cooperative
should rear thousands of them.
You should breed Korean cows into milch cows.
Although this is difficult, we should do it just the same, so that we
can get milk. They say that the breeding will make it possible to obtain
four kilogrammes of milk a day from each cow. Then we can get one
ton of milk from each cow a year. One ton of milk costs 300 won. So
such a breeding method enables us to get 300 won in cash and a calf
from each cow. The agricultural cooperatives should not use cows as
draught cattle but strive to turn them into highly productive milch
cows.
If we are to get much milk from Korean cows, we should provide
high-quality fodder. You should plant large quantities of beans to make
albuminous fodder and make silage from maize stalks. You should also
prepare other fodder.
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Agricultural cooperatives should not try to raise milch cows, pigs,
goats, sheep, chickens and rabbits alike. Where milch cows thrive, they
should be raised, while chickens should be reared where there are good
conditions for them. All cooperatives should raise rabbits because this
is possible everywhere.
If we are to produce large quantities of meat, eggs and milk, we
should conduct effective explanation and information work amongst
the peasants. It is the workers who develop industry and produce
industrial products needed by the peasants. They cannot do this unless
they are fed well. You should fully explain to the peasants that only
when they produce enough quantities of meat for the workers can the
latter dig up iron ore and operate the iron works and also produce farm
machines and fertilizers, and such industrial goods as cloth and shoes
in large quantities, to be sent to the countryside.
You should make use of reservoirs for the extensive development
of fresh water fish breeding.
You should also conduct meticulous organizational work to make
use of mountains for large-scale secondary jobs. By utilizing
mountains you should raise bees and build orchards everywhere. Large
quantities of white apricot should also be planted on mountains. You
should plant this fruit not only on the mountains but also in
uncultivated areas as well as in the villages and by the roadside.
If we create vast orchards by utilizing mountains, we will make our
country more beautiful and enable not only our generation but also
future generations to lead a good life. We should do our best to leave
our future generations the asset with which they can lead a decent life.
We are not well-off now because we were left nothing by our
ancestors. However, we should enable our future generations to lead an
affluent life in a good world.
Frankly speaking, we are not happy with our forefathers for many
reasons. It was their fault that our country was ruined and poverty and
illiteracy prevailed in this land. So, with a view to abolishing this and
enlightening the people we had to enforce compulsory education as
well as technical education and build scores of institutes for higher
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education. Our forefathers did not leave us even a single adequate
house. What they left were only ramshackle straw-thatched huts. We
cannot hand them over to our future generations. We should leave
them fine and modem towns and rural villages, fertile land irrigated
with vital water, and mountains and fields where flowers bloom and
fruit ripen all the year round. If we embark on our work with
determination, we can enable not only our future, but also our own
generation to enjoy this fine world. If you plant white apricot now, in
five years’ time you will be able to live amongst apricot trees and take
the fruit. It is worth having a try at it.
In the seaside areas they should make good use of the sea. This is
not so difficult. Seaside agricultural cooperatives should land fish in
large quantities and, at the same time, cultivate shallow-sea products
skilfully by enlisting some of their labour. They should make use of the
sea to cultivate shellfish, oysters and seaweed.
The leading officials of the county Party and people’s committees
should go to the lower units to help the cooperatives to map out perfect
production plans so as to effect a change in this year’s farming. This
will bring about a sharp rise in agricultural production and improve the
people’s living standard.
Ryanggang Province splendidly carried out the Party’s
agricultural policy last year, bringing about remarkable
improvement in the livelihood of the local population. In this
province every household was last year allotted eight tons of
potatoes and 1,000 won in cash after setting aside the public
accumulation fund and paying back the loan grain to the state. In
some places 3,000 to 4,000 won in cash was given to every family.
Eight tons of potatoes amount to two tons of grain. So it is said that
after a year’s farming the peasants have produced enough food to last
them for three years. All this success is attributable to the thorough
implementation of the Party’s policy on the part of leading officials.
If you do as told by the Party, you are sure to become well-off.
Chairmen of ri Party committees are also present here. So they should
have intensive discussions on what should be done in the countryside
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this year and adopt proper decisions. If you do this at this plenary
meeting and strive to implement them with determination, the
Hoeryong folk will also lead a decent life.
I am confident that, as a reliable Party body, the Hoeryong county
Party organization will thoroughly carry out the Party’s policy and
serve the population more faithfully and thus achieve greater success
in all work.
171
TASKS OF THE PARTY ORGANIZATIONS
OF NORTH HAMGYONG PROVINCE
Speech Delivered at an Enlarged Plenary Meeting
of the North Hamgyong Provincial Committee
of the Workers' Party of Korea
March 23, 1959
For more than a month, the Party Central Committee has been
intensively guiding the Party organization of North Flamgyong
Province.
To begin with, members of the Party Central Committee guidance
group did their work for nearly one month. Then, leading cadres of the
Party Central Committee personally inspected several factories and
enterprises, agricultural and livestock farms and agricultural
cooperatives in the province for some 20 days. They also attended
meetings for two days and had a good account of the general situation
through speeches and dialogues.
As was pointed out in the report, the Party organization of North
Flamgyong Province has, in general, performed good work in the past,
under the guidance of the Party Central Committee. We can say that
firmly basing itself on the Party’s line, it has achieved considerable
success in rallying the Party members and the people around the Party
Central Committee and in developing all sectors of the national
economy.
North Flamgyong Province is a region in which the most important
industries of our country are concentrated. The Party organization of
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North Hamgyong Province has made a great success in restoring,
readjusting and developing industries, and created favourable
conditions for the progress of our national economy. When the
Chollima Movement was launched throughout the country following
the December 1956 Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee,
the workers and technicians, upholding the Party’s policy, were
actively mobilized in the major industries in North Hamgyong
Province, i.e., the Kim Chaek Iron Works, Songjin and Chongjin Steel
Plants, and the ore and coal mines, as well as the main light industry
factories. Consequently, enterprises in the province have manufactured
large quantities of products and played a big role in the general
development of our national economy.
Inspired by the Party Central Committee’s Red Letter addressed to
all Party members in September last year, the workers in North
Hamgyong Province satisfactorily fulfilled the industrial production
plan for 1958 with great enthusiasm, and this year they are continuing
an unbending struggle to more than double last year’s production. This
is very gratifying.
We recently visited different factories, and saw that all the major
enterprises, in answer to the Party’s appeal, are waging a vigorous
struggle for the development of the national economy.
We could also see that encouraged by the letter of the Party Central
Committee, particularly by the resolution of the National Congress of
Agricultural Cooperatives held last January, the cooperative members
in the province are also striving to boost their farming which is lagging
behind that of other provinces. It is a very good thing that the
cooperative members in the province are struggling with determination
to turn out better and more farm produce, including grain and livestock
products, than last year.
In spite of these achievements, the work of the Party organization of
North Hamgyong Province has had many shortcomings. First of all,
there are defects in Party ideological work and in the carrying out of
the Party’s agricultural policy. There are also many shortcomings in
the guidance to some industrial sectors.
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The defects revealed in the work of the Party organization of North
Hamgyong Province may also be found in other Party organizations.
They are, however, more serious than in other Party organizations.
1 do not know whether it is because the Party organization of North
Hamgyong Province is far away from the Party Central Committee and
has not properly received day-to-day guidance and control, but,
generally speaking, you have revealed a strong tendency here to do
things your own way. In the past, the Party Central Committee put
forward specific measures particularly for the development of
agriculture in North Hamgyong Province, and has time and again given
correct instructions on how to properly conduct Party ideological work
and personnel affairs. But from the way the Party organizations in the
province have run things we see that they are under nobody’s control,
thus some of them are carrying out the instructions and others are not.
The pattern of bureaucracy and parochialism, which has persisted
for nearly 15 years, has not yet been destroyed.
But I believe that the present guidance of the Party Central
Committee will bring about a great change in the work of the Party
organization of North Hamgyong Province, in the work of the people’s
power organs and of all sectors of the national economy. I say this
because in North Hamgyong Province the working class makes up the
overwhelming majority of the population, and all the people were
under the influence of revolutionary struggles for a long time in the
past, and they give unreserved support to the Party Central Committee
and are firmly rallied around it. So there is not the slightest doubt that
you will soon rectify your shortcomings and bring about a change in
spite of some unsound elements who have caused no little hindrance to
your work.
As we have clearly realized in the course of our talks with many
workers, even though some elements wield bureaucracy, neglect the
fulfilment of the Party’s policies and try to distort the line of the Party
Central Committee, the people do not obey them. They all know that
the line of the Party Central Committee is correct, but that it is distorted
because of the tricks played by wicked middlemen. Therefore, if, after
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this meeting, you properly explain Party policies to the masses and
strongly fight wrong tendencies with a firm resolve to rectify your
faults, all defects can be corrected quickly.
Availing myself of this opportunity, I would like to speak about
Party work, the people’s committee work and the work of all sectors of
the national economy such as industry, agriculture and fishery.
1. ON PARTY WORK
A serious defect in the work of the Party organization of North
Hamgyong Province is that the Party’s policies and the decisions of the
Party Central Committee have not been fully made known to the
people as far as some Party organizations and localities are concerned,
nor have they been carried out satisfactorily in many respects.
This defect is manifested in no small measure particularly in the
implementation of the Party’s agricultural policy and in the failure to
eliminate parochialism in the Party’s personnel and ideological work.
In short, because the pattern of parochialism, nepotism and
bureaucracy once set up by factionalists such as Jang Sun Myong was
not eliminated, the evil aftermath of factionalism has persisted and the
Party’s lines and policies have not been implemented adequately even
after Jang Sun Myong and other factionalists were removed from
leading positions.
Where the pattern of parochialism and nepotism has not yet been
smashed, the Party’s policies have not been accepted and the situation
that prevailed immediately after liberation remains unchanged. Where
this pattern has been smashed, the Party’s policies have been accepted
and all work has progressed considerably. It is clear that unless this
pattern is smashed, the Party’s policies cannot be implemented, nor
can good results be attained, however fine cadres may come to work.
It is true that most of the former provincial Party committee
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chairmen were cadres who were not skilful in their work, lacked
experience and did not receive enough political training. So there could
be defects in their work, but they were people who wanted to live in the
spirit of the Party Central Committee and tried hard to carry out the
Party’s policies. However, they could not break the pattern of
parochialism and nepotism, and you did not help them smash it, so that
they got caught up in its nets and could not carry out the Party’s
policies satisfactorily.
Factionalists, parochialists or those who are imbued with nepotism
do not subject themselves to the leadership of those who are faithful to
the Party. They say yes in front of them, but act differently behind their
backs. This is a double-dealing act which implies expressing deference
ostensibly and counter-plotting behind the scenes. It is something like
the behaviour of the factionalists in South Hamgyong Province in
1946. At that time and even later, O Ki Sop outwardly pretended to
support and agree to all the Party’s lines and policies, saying 11
support the Central Committee,” and shouting manse, but then he acted
in his own way.
In North Hamgyong Province, too, factionalists and parochialists
have long acted with utter disregard for the Party and the state,
bragging that they had waged a revolutionary struggle and had been in
prison before. As a result, the Party’s policies have not been carried out
properly.
Had the Party’s policies been explained to the masses in North
Hamgyong Province and struggles been thoroughly waged to
implement them, as instructed by the Party Central Committee, the
people in the province would have been far better off than they are
now.
The problems we have proposed this time for agriculture in North
Hamgyong Province are not new. All of them have been already
discussed in 1954. As far as I have now found out, factories and
enterprises have fulfilled all the tasks we assigned to them when we
came here in 1954. The Kim Chaek Iron Works has carried out almost
all the tasks set in 1954, and the coal mines and other enterprises, too,
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have fulfilled the tasks assigned to them by the Party. But strangely
enough, the tasks set forth in the agricultural sector have not been
carried out well. What does this show?
The industrial sector is, for the most part, guided by the central
authority directly and the class consciousness of the workers is high.
Therefore, those elements who play double games cannot hold their
own here. Even if some element may shelve the Party’s instructions
and thus attempt to obstruct their fulfilment, he cannot run away with
it, since the workers are fully informed of what the Party wants them to
do. However, the parochialists ensconced in the agricultural sector did
not work devotedly, and that is why this phenomenon has appeared
today.
In agriculture, things have also gone well where there is no harmful
aftereffect of parochialism, but went badly where there is much of it.
Particularly, in those areas where those who only boast about their past
prison life and neglect their work are ensconced, almost no tasks have
been fulfilled.
For instance, let us take Kilju, Myongchon and Kim Chaek
Counties which boast of being the “best” in everything. Their
inhabitants were greatly influenced by our past revolutionary struggle;
those areas have paddy fields and a relatively mild climate. And yet,
today, they suffer most from the cold weather, flood and drought, and
the people’s standard of living there is the lowest in the province.
Things are rather better in the areas north of Chongjin in spite of
having worse natural and climatic conditions. In the mountainous areas
we found that they have enough provisions and get large incomes from
sideline products since potatoes and other cold-resistant crops are
grown and stockbreeding is developed to suit their natural conditions,
as instructed by the Party.
Why is it that things do not go right in places such as Kilju,
Myongchon, Kim Chaek and Kyongsong which have the best natural
and economic conditions in the province? This is not a simple
question.
It is because those dandies who were formerly engaged in
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“revolution” just to cut a fine figure, are ensconced there and do not
carry out the Party’s policies faithfully, only bragging about how they
took part in the “revolution”.
During the present guidance, we studied the state of things, visiting
one village after another beginning with Kim Chaek County. In the
districts directed by those who have not been affected by factionalism
and parochialism, even in those places where the economic basis was
the weakest, conditions have been created for a good life and
foundations laid for further development. But things were different in
the districts led by the parochialists.
As you can see, the fault of the Party organization of North
Hamgyong Province is that it has failed to remove the nefarious
aftereffect of parochialism. You should first help the officials to get rid
of evil ideology and then explain the Party’s policies to them. If not,
they will remain confused, not knowing what is what, no matter what
good things you may tell them.
It is not due to the people, nor because the lower officials are bad
that the Party’s policies are not implemented. They have not been
carried out because some districts are led by a few bad elements,
especially those still affected by the evils of factionalism or those
imbued with nepotism.
In 1947 the Party Central Committee inspected the work of the
Party organization of North Hamgyong Province and already at that
time pointed out that there was large evidence of parochialism and
nepotism. Even in carrying out the Party’s cadre policy, competent
personnel, including cadres of working-class origin, were not selected.
Only those who had been in jail were picked out in an unprincipled
manner whether they had become treacherous or not and, in the end, a
man who had been imprisoned on a charge of opium dealing was even
appointed to an important post. The Party Central Committee severely
criticized this.
But Jang Sun Myong, the then provincial Party committee
chairman, did not carry out the instructions of the Party Central
Committee. He did not even inform the Party members of what had
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been pointed out for hours at the review of the inspection at that time,
and had only recorded a small part of it in the minutes. However, the
spirit was left alive in the minutes, and even the factionalists could not
blot it out completely.
The comrades who came here later should have looked at the
records and rooted out parochialism and nepotism in accordance with
the spirit contained in them. If they had done so, things would have
gone well. But they did not look into that document and failed to
uproot parochialism and nepotism. Consequently, those elements who
carry out the Party’s policies in a formalistic manner remain as ever,
and the practice of shouting manse outwardly while neglecting their
carrying out behind the scenes still continues to exist.
At its plenary meeting in December 1956, the Party Central
Committee even adopted a special decision for the development of
agriculture in North Hamgyong Province. The decision of the Party
Central Committee, however, has not been fulfilled satisfactorily.
This, too, is attributable to parochialism, as we have found out in the
current inspection.
As you know, parochialism and nepotism are the hotbeds of
factionalism. They are the roots of factionalism. When they grow, they
will engender it. That is why parochialism and nepotism should be
thoroughly rooted out.
The most important task in the work of the Party organization of
this province is to wipe out the poisonous consequences of
parochialism and nepotism. An uncompromising struggle should be
waged against those who outwardly pledge support but are actually
betraying us.
Our Party is not a reformers’ party, but a Marxist-Leninist party, a
militant party which fights against capitalism and for the victory of
socialism and communism. In order to be able to overthrow capitalism
and obtain victory for socialism and communism the Party needs an
iron unity, based on the principle of democratic centralism.
The whole Party should move united with one mind and one will in
accordance with the instructions and decisions of the Party Central
179
Committee, the General Staff of the Party. Within the Party there can
be no hanging back when the leadership orders to go “forward” or
running to the right when it orders to turn “to the left”. Only anarchists
act that way.
Democratic centralism in the Party means that the Party takes into
account the opinions of the masses of its members, adopts lines and
policies and elects its leadership, which directs the struggle to carry out
those lines and policies in a unified way.
No Party member has the right to violate the instructions of the
Party Central Committee, which represent the will of all Party
members. That is why we should fight resolutely against factionalism,
parochialism and nepotism.
The conference of our Party held last year exposed and smashed the
remnants of factionalism which had historically been formed in the
working-class movement of our country. We should by no means
tolerate parochialism and nepotism, hotbeds of factionalism. If we
weaken the struggle against them, our Party will not become a militant
one.
Furthermore, every Party member should cultivate the habit of
studying the Party’s policies profoundly and carrying them out
unconditionally.
As I said some time ago at the plenary meeting of the Hoeryong
County Party Committee, the Central Committee of our Party was
elected by all the Party members, and the Party’s line was decided
upon by the Party congress representing the will of all the Party
members. On this basis the Party Central Committee puts forth its
policies as occasions demand.
Policies set forth by the Party Central Committee are an
embodiment of the opinions which have come up from below. They
represent the will of all the Party members-they represent the
organizational will of the whole Party. Therefore, it is the duty of a
Party member to study the Party’s policies and decisions thoroughly
and carry them out unconditionally.
One must thoroughly carry out the Party’s policies whether or not
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one participated in the revolutionary struggle before. A person who
took part in the revolutionary struggle in the past should be more
faithful to our present revolutionary work and carry out the Party’s
policies better. It is worse for a person, who is said to have done
revolutionary work before, to run counter to the Party’s policies.
Next, the Party’s personnel affairs should be improved.
First of all, in improving this work, stress should be placed on
thoroughly doing away with the tendency to parochialism and
nepotism.
This tendency in personnel affairs is the root cause of factionalism.
Everyone is duty bound to keep his eyes open against this tendency in
personnel affairs.
Once, O Ki Sop took people from Hongwon down to Hwanghae
Province with him. I noticed here that certain persons have brought
people from Kim Chaek County up to Chongjin in an unprincipled
manner. This is what bad elements do. This is exactly the same thing
that Chinese warlords such as Wu Peifu and Zhang Zuolin used to do.
This sort of thing can never be tolerated in our Party. It is
impermissible to select cadres on the basis of family connections or
provincialism or group considerations.
The Party’s first criterion for the selection of cadres is loyalty to the
Party. To be loyal to the Party means fighting determinedly to carry out
the Party’s policies. A person who only shouts manse is by no means
loyal to the Party. One is loyal to the Party if one works well, not
shouting manse, and fights to implement the Party’s policies
thoroughly even at the cost of self-sacrifice. It is necessary for you to
understand this clearly.
Some comrades call a person simple-hearted and faithful, a person
who, like a bonze, does not know how to do anything. A bonze may be
loyal to Buddhism, but he cannot be loyal to the Party. How can we call
a person faithful, if he does not work, and even does not endeavour, for
the good of the people, and just eats the bread of idleness?
Cadres should, as a matter of course, be picked out from among
officials who are loyal to the Party and are competent. To be competent
181
means to have a wide range of knowledge, including technical
knowledge, and a strong enteiprise and energy.
The first criterion for a cadre is his loyalty to the Party and the
second is his ability. The best thing, of course, is that the cadre be both
faithful to the Party and competent. We do not need a person who has
only knowledge and no loyalty. Knowledge of that kind serves no
purpose.
We need Party cadres who are, above all, loyal to the revolution,
who support the Party single-heartedly and stand firm in their loyalty
without the slightest vacillation, under any circumstances, no matter
which way the wind may blow. We do not need those who bend with
the wind that may blow this or that way and surrender to the enemy in
the end. We must select and appoint cadres who are truly loyal to the
revolution.
As for the revolutionary cadres, we cannot say any longer that only
those who did revolutionary work in the past are revolutionaries. In
1946, the year immediately after liberation, or in 1947 and 1948, only
those who had been engaged in revolutionary activities before could be
called revolutionaries. But today our officials are all revolutionaries,
because we have been waging a revolutionary struggle for nearly 15
years since liberation.
Who did we fight? First of all, we fought the landlords. The struggle
for the agrarian reform, for confiscating the lands of the landlords and
distributing them to the poor peasants, was not a simple struggle. The
landlords put up a stubborn resistance. The confiscation and
nationalization of factories owned by pro-Japanese elements and
capitalists was also a revolution; it is a revolutionary struggle.
Why should we say that only those who had been in jail for having
belonged to peasants’ associations or for having shouted manse before
liberation are revolutionaries, while those who, after liberation,
crushed the resistance of the landlords, carried out the agrarian reform
and joined the struggle for the nationalization of the factories of
pro-Japanese elements and traitors to the nation are not
revolutionaries?
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Moreover, these are the people who emerged victorious from the
three years of fierce war against the US imperialists. The anti-Japanese
struggle was a revolutionary struggle but even the fight against the US
imperialists during the Fatherland Liberation War was a revolutionary
struggle. Since the anti-Japanese struggle was a period of more
arduous struggle, those cadres who took part in it are, naturally, more
precious.
All those who fought in the Fatherland Liberation War are just as
revolutionary as the revolutionary fighters of former days, even though
they might be slighted because there are many of them, just as children
are neglected when there are many in a family.
There was also a powerful popular struggle against the US
imperialists in Orangchon, North Hamgyong Province, wasn’t there? It
was a revolutionary struggle. Dismantling and evacuating machines
from factories on one’s back through fire and water in the midst of
enemy bombing or the difficult retreat were all acts of a revolutionary
struggle.
The workers organized factory regiments and battalions and
advanced as far as the Raktong River to fight the enemy; then they
came back across the mountains and rivers breaking through the
encirclement of the enemy, and again fought on the defence line in
order not to give up even an inch of land. How could it not be a
revolutionary struggle?
There were several hundred or several thousand revolutionaries
before, but their ranks have now increased to more than one million.
The one million members of the Workers’ Party are all revolutionaries.
Why should only those who had been engaged in the revolution
before the August 15 liberation be revolutionaries, and those who
fought after the August 15 liberation not be revolutionaries? The only
difference is that some people started the revolution a little earlier than
others.
We should certainly treasure those who have been engaged in the
revolution for a long time. Old revolutionaries, particularly those who
took part in the anti-Japanese armed struggle, and those who had
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waged a hard struggle in prison should naturally be the hard-core
members in the ra nk s of our cadres. Because these were the people
who raised the torch of revolution at a time when our situation was
harder and more arduous, when our country was overcast with dark
clouds and our prospects were really gloomy. Thanks to them, our
Party now has a membership of a million-one million
revolutionaries-and it is thanks to them that struggles could be
unfolded against the landlords and capitalists to confiscate their lands
and factories, and to establish the people’s power. It is also thanks to
them that we could carry forward Marxist-Leninist ideology and apply
it creatively to our reality. Therefore, it is only natural that they should
be our pivot and core. It stands to reason that the Party should treasure
them.
However, those who participated in the revolution before should
have a feeling of honour for their part, and they should act and think
this way: I should work more and better than others since I have more
experience in the revolution; I should also study harder than others,
and I should make more suggestions and come up with more good
ideas which will be useful for the revolution of our country, drawing
upon Marxist-Leninist theory and my own experience, and I should
always take the lead in all struggles. Only then will everyone respect
them for the hard life they went through before for the sake of the
revolution and for the hard work they are still now doing even without
sleep.
In North Hamgyong Province, however, I found the situation
somewhat different. There are people who go through life idly with
their legs crossed on the pretext that they had taken part in
revolutionary activities in the past. They do not even glance at a
statistical table, but tell their secretaries to check it. They remain
sitting, expecting that their subordinates will do all the work.
Our country has a social pension system, and if these people are not
willing to work, they may as well receive the benefit of the social
pension. Social pensions are also given to former revolutionaries who
are now unable to work.
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If they cannot work, they ought to give way to the young people.
What is the use of holding down a job for nothing and preventing
others from working?
When I visited your province in 1947, this vice already existed. If
they had been in prison, it was for the revolution, not for the sake of
their own well-being. They did what they were supposed to do. So they
need not wield their authority for that reason. The habit of putting on
airs and neglecting work, which they acquired at that time, still remains
unrectified.
It is right to give priority to the revolutionaries in carrying out our
Party’s cadre policy. I am not against it. But if one is a revolutionary,
one ought to work more and better than the others. Is it right for
someone to sit idle and do nothing, and only assume airs and rant at
others?
Also, there are some people who brag about their social status.
They say: I am a member of the working class, I come from the
working-class origin, and who would dare to lay his hand on me? They
become so arrogant that as soon as they have been promoted to high
positions, they become corrupt and commit excesses as if they were
old-time government officials, forgetting their past when they were
oppressed and exploited by the imperialists.
We select cadres of worker or poor-peasant origin because they
strongly hate the system of exploitation and are expected to work better
since they were the most exploited by the capitalists and the landlords
in the past. There is no reason whatsoever for a person of
working-class origin to brag about his social status, to become
arrogant, do nothing and lead a corrupt and dissipated life.
Therefore, in personnel affairs you should not mystify the past
career of revolution, but proceed on the principle that everybody has
participated in the revolution. No one should practise nepotism.
Everyone, whether he took part in the revolution before the August 15
liberation or fought after the August 15 liberation, should take pride in
the fact that they have been engaged in the revolution. Whether they
have taken part in the revolution or not, you should not try to promote
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or draw cadres to your side by means of nepotism and parochialism.
We should sternly oppose this.
In promoting cadres, you should always select those who are
infinitely loyal to the Party, those who are enterprising in Party work,
revolutionary activities, those who have ability and knowledge. I
already referred to this point in 1947. But these guidelines were not
followed in North Hamgyong Province, so I am saying it again today,
ten years later.
One of the most serious defects in our personnel affairs that must be
corrected promptly is that you do not help or educate cadres after their
promotion. Everyone, no matter how good he may be, must always be
assisted and educated after he is promoted.
It often happens that quite a few cadres of working-class origin are
left to themselves without further education after promotion; as a
result, they have scanty knowledge and lack ideological and political
training, so that before long, they go wrong and commit errors and
have to be demoted from their leading positions. Who is to blame for
all this? This happens because our officials misconduct Party work. It
is an important task of the Party to select cadres correctly and educate
and help them at all times.
If cadres are merely appointed and not educated, any of them may
commit errors and fall under the influence of bad ideas. That is why we
should pay special attention to educating and giving assistance to
cadres. Until now we have not done so, and this is one of the grave
defects of our Party work. This defect seems to be more serious in the
personnel affairs of the Party organization of North Hamgyong
Province.
In the past, some officials of the provincial Party organization
pretended to do Party work, showing off, abusing Party authority and
making speeches. In consequence, there are many shortcomings in
personnel affairs.
As in the past, particularly these days, the Party Central
Committee has posed the personnel affairs as the foremost work of
the Party.
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The personnel work means to correctly select, promote and allocate
cadres and properly educate and help them at all times. One of the
faults committed by the Party organization of North Hamgyong
Province was that it did not promote cadres properly and that, even
after their promotion, it failed to educate and help them.
The education of cadres is always accompanied by checkup.
Having allocated a cadre, you should always be concerned about him
and look after him lest he should go wrong, call him in, talk with him
or give him short courses, and even go to help him yourselves. You
should understand him, teach him work methods and raise his
ideological and political levels. It is most important to continue such
education after his promotion.
Another question concerning personnel affairs is to pick out many
workers who have been working in the key branches of industry for
many years because North Hamgyong Province is a region with a large
number of workers.
Cadres of working-class origin have a strong organization and
revolutionary ability; they are valiant and have a deep hatred for
imperialism and capitalists. They do not vacillate in a difficult situation
and are loyal to the revolution. However, I do not mean that you should
dismiss all the existing cadres. You should re-educate and keep them in
service and, at the same time, train many new cadres from among the
working class.
The next important thing in Party work is to work with the
intellectuals.
Other Party organizations also have shortcomings in their work
with the intellectuals, but Party organizations of North Hamgyong
Province have many. Work with the intellectuals has not been
performed rightly at the Chongjin Steel Plant, Chongjin Spinning Mill,
Aoji Coal Mine and many other factories.
The Korean intellectuals in former days were intellectuals of a
colonial country. It is true that many of them came from landlord or
capitalist families and lived in affluence before. But they, too, were
subjected to national oppression and discrimination under Japanese
187
imperialist rule. Therefore, they had an anti-imperialist revolutionary
spirit.
Moreover, after liberation they did not go over to the side of
imperialists, landlords and capitalists, but came over to the side of the
people. The important thing is that the intellectuals came over to the
side of the people after liberation.
At that time there were two roads for the intellectuals to take. One
was to follow the landlords and capitalists and the other was to follow
the working class. In north Korea a people’s power was set up with the
working class as the core and in south Korea a puppet regime centring
around the landlords and capitalists. At that time, most of the
intellectuals in north Korea did not want to serve imperialists,
landlords and capitalists, and remained in the northern half, determined
to serve the working class and the people. Furthermore, many
intellectuals of south Korea came over to north Korea.
Together with us they took part in confiscating the lands of
landlords, with us they took part in confiscating the factories of the
capitalists and pro-Japanese elements, and for three years they took
part in the war against US imperialism. During the Fatherland
Liberation War they were trained revolutionarily through arduous
struggles. Particularly after the armistice, under very difficult
circumstances, they worked with us in reconstruction for the Party, for
the working class, for the country, for the socialist revolution.
They are also well aware that the socialist revolution does away
with the capitalists and with capitalism. But they, together with us,
carried out agricultural cooperativization to get rid of capitalism and
took part in reforming individual traders and entrepreneurs in towns
along socialist lines.
What is the difference between them and us? If any, it is that
because their fathers were rich they lived in affluence and studied
when they were young, while we lived in poverty and had no
opportunity to study.
However, they, too, have waged with us all the revolutionary
struggles for 15 years to carry out the democratic and socialist
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revolutions against the landlords and capitalists and to build socialism.
What is more important, in the arduous struggle against US
imperialism, they shed their blood with us and went through the same
trials and hardships as we did. Is there any reason to be suspicious of
the intellectuals? Is there any ground for distrusting them? There is
none. We should only unite with them and march ahead towards
communism hand in hand with them.
Nevertheless, some comrades are not willing to trust those who
work well, bringing up different objections as to their social status.
Narrow-minded attitudes towards the intellectuals are a tendency of
sectarianism. In the past, the sectarians rejected all other people,
claiming that they alone were carrying out the revolution.
Communist revolution is the cause for the masses, the cause of
bringing well-being to many people. A revolution cannot be carried out
single-handed; it can be won only when many people take part in it.
Why should you reject those who have come to the side of the
revolution and are ready to fight for the working class, for the people,
for communism, picking flaws with their social origin and other
inconsequential things? Well, what could you do all by yourselves if
you chase away everybody who wants to follow you? That is exactly
what the parochialists and factionalists say-and exactly what such
factionalists as Choe Chang Ik and Yun Kong Hum did.
At the Party congress before the election of the C entral Committee,
we discussed with all the delegates the necessity of electing the
intellectuals who fought well together with us to the Party Central
Committee. At the congress everybody agreed. But a few months after
the congress, the anti-Party elements came out against the Party’s
cadre policy, alleging that the intellectuals were all pro-Japanese. Yun
Kong Hum called the intellectuals pro-Japanese elements, but in actual
fact, he himself is a pro-Japanese element who piloted airplanes for
Japanese imperialism.
Our Party has absolute trust in the intellectuals who fight on our
side.
Of course, they may be influenced by their family origin, and
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sometimes guilty of vacillation and liberalism.
For this reason, since immediately after liberation the Party Central
Committee has persistently educated and transformed the intellectuals,
and incessantly endeavoured to join hands with them and boldly admit
them to the Party to make them communists and march hand in hand
with them in the building of communism. This policy is still
unchanged.
In future, too, the Party should continue to educate our intellectuals
and instil the working-class spirit in them, thus training them into
unyielding revolutionaries who, like the working class, are courageous
in the revolution and can forge ahead confidently under any adversity.
The working class should look to the intellectuals for their
knowledge and skills, and the latter should look to the former for their
revolutionary spirit, strong organization and immense loyalty to the
Party, thus uniting and cooperating with each other in the struggle for
communism.
We should not make many people waver or reject those who work
well, by finding this or that fault.
At the same time, the intellectuals should have a legitimate pride in
themselves: “I am an honourable man who has fought for the working
class and for the people over the 15 years since liberation”; “I am a
proud fighter of the Party, a fighter of the working class.” They should
have this sense of honour and pride.
Work with the intellectuals should be improved. Party
organizations should steadily intensify the education of intellectuals
and provide conditions for them to do their job well. We should see to
it that they unite with the workers, do not get arrogant, boldly root out
the survivals of old ideologies, incessantly learn new technical
know-how and do not persist in the old one, and inspire themselves
with a Marxist-Leninist world outlook. In this way, our intellectuals
should be converted into communists who can fight for the Party and
the people with determination.
Now, it is an important issue for the factories to educate new
workers and transform them patiently.
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Today the composition of our factory workers is very complex.
Why? When a country like ours emerges from a backward colonial,
semi-feudal agrarian state into an industrial-agricultural one, it is natural
that many people of non-working-class origin flow into the factories.
Especially, in our country, a large number of urban small traders and
manufacturers who had been ruined by the war found their way into the
factories and So did part of the rich farmers from the countryside, in the
course of the socialist transformation in the postwar years.
On the other hand, large numbers of formerly hard-core factory
workers fell in the war or were promoted to cadres. Consequently, the
majority of our factory workers are novices. Under the condition in
which our industry developed rapidly after the war, it was not possible
to train and educate the workers adequately before employing them at
the factories.
As you see, the formation of factory workers in our country is
complex. Yet, you must not weaken the unity on that account, saying
that this man is unreliable and that man is impure.
As a matter of fact, the Workers’ Party members, the communists,
together with veteran workers in particular should play the main role in
educating the new workers and transform their ideology while working
at the blast furnaces and at the machines. You need not be afraid of the
complex composition of the factory workers at all.
Veteran workers should be the core in educating and transforming
all new workers into reliable members of the working class. Only then
can production proceed more smoothly, the factory be put in proper
order and the tempo of socialist construction quickened.
Who are we against? The flagrant delinquents, in other words, those
who are against us at present. We must fight against those who vilify
our system and try to wreck it.
We should forgive and transform even those who opposed us
yesterday, if they work well and support us today. Those people were
against us in the past because they did not understand us. We should
not stigmatize them as bad elements.
The present is more important than anything else. If they opposed
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us yesterday because of their ignorance, but have now come to their
senses and support us and work well, we should unite and go along
with them.
The main thing in the ideological struggle is education and
transformation. You must determinedly fight the handful of elements
who are doing mischief today.
Party organizations and the trade union and Democratic Youth
League organizations in the factories should intensify educational
work in this direction, and wage a nationwide struggle against
counter-revolution.
Next in order of importance in Party work is to eliminate work
methods of administration and command. The work style of resorting
to coercion and abusing Party authority should be done away with.
The principal method of Party work should be persuasion and
education. To be inquisitive and prying is alien to Party work. Many
comrades still conduct Party work in an administrative way and take
the apparatus of the Party for some sort of ruling machine.
As I have stressed time and again, the Party should always assume
the attitude of a mother towards its members. The Party bodies, Party
organizations, the Party committee chairmen, vice-chairmen and
committee members should always pay attention to the ideological and
cultural education of Party members and to matters related to their life,
always educating and persuading them. Thus, every Party member
should be led to rely on the Party organization in all realms of his life
and regard the Party organization as his mother.
In this way, the Party organizations should always educate their
members and, at the same time, draw them into practical struggles by
giving them assignments. Party members should, on their part, always
mix with the masses of non-Party people-the blue and white collar
workers and peasants-and educate them and show interest in their life.
Party members should be the vanguard of the masses in all work, be the
first to plunge themselves into any work which is difficult for the
masses, carry it out, and be of an example in both work and study.
Thus, they should become the standard-bearers of the revolutionary
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struggle among the masses, educating and leading them forward. In
other words. Party members should become “mothers” to the people,
and the Party organizations, “mothers” to the Party members, rallying
the masses of the people around the Party.
Only then will the one million Party members be united consciously
and more closely around the Party Central Committee and the masses
be rallied firmly around the Party.
Another important thing in Party work is the issue of implementing
the Party’s policies.
Before anything else, Party workers should study the Party’s
policies and the decisions of the Party C entral C ommittee, and explain
and propagate them so that all Party members may be well-informed of
them. Only when all Party members are well-informed of the Party’s
policies and decisions, can we all, from the Chairman of the Party
Central Committee down to the ri Party committee chairmen and,
further, the one million Party members, breathe the same air, speak the
same words and act in unison. And you should proceed to the work of
guidance after you have had a good understanding of the Party’s
policies. If you know the Party’s policies well, nothing will go wrong
in your work of guidance.
I am told that at the Hoeryong County Party Committee, the
chairman reads only the titles of the decisions and instructions of the
Party Central Committee and keeps them in his file cabinet.
Consequently, the instructors do not even know what the decisions and
instructions are and so they are not only unable to give correct
guidance but they can neither give lectures properly. Even when they
want to say something, they hesitate for fear that their words may go
counter to the Party’s policies. This is the most pernicious practice
which keeps the people ignorant of the Party’s policies and obstructs
their implementation.
On this visit to North Hamgyong Province I have seen that many
officials of the Party and government organs are not well-informed
about the Party’s policies and decisions. When they heard speeches
made by cadres from the Party Central Committee, they exclaimed:
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“Why, is that so!” as if they were foreigners being told about the
situation in our country for the first time. It is obvious that things
cannot go right under these circumstances.
During the last few years the Party Central Committee has greatly
improved its method and style of work. In order to inspire the officials
of the Party Central Committee with the Party’s policies before anyone
else, when any problem is discussed and decided upon at the
Presidium, the vice-chairmen promptly call together the directors and
deputy directors of the different departments and tell them what
problem was discussed and decided upon at the Presidium that day.
The department directors, in turn, meet with the section chiefs and
instructors and inform them.
So, from the Chairman down to the instructors, we think of the
same thing and speak the same words. Since the instructors know our
Party’s policies well, they can correctly analyse with confidence any
new problem they may come across, and deal with it skilfully.
Officials of the Party organization of North Hamgyong Province,
however, work in a different way. In many Party organizations in the
province, leading officials glance over the decisions and instructions of
the Party Central Committee upon receiving them and then keep them
locked in the file cabinet, without thinking of informing others of them.
You should not do this. The decisions of the Party Central Committee
should be made known promptly to the officials of lower levels.
What is the use of sending down uninformed instructors who have
no idea of them? They go to lower units to conduct what you call
intensive guidance similar to that of the Party Central Committee, but
they rather handle matters contrary to the Party’s policies because they
are not well acquainted with the decisions of the Central Committee of
the Party.
Why are you in such a hurry about guidance? The main purpose of
Party guidance is to disseminate and implement the Party’s policy. If
instructors do not know much about the Party’s policy, you should
arrange short courses for them, say, for ten days or even a month, until
they fully understand it, and then send them out to give guidance.
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Not explaining and propagating the Party’s policies properly is the
same as keeping the people ignorant, and not carrying through the
Party’s policies is the same as doing harm to the Party. Therefore, you
should fight strongly against such practices and implement our Party’s
policies.
There is no secret in our Party’s policies and work. Except for
military affairs, intemal-Party organizational issues and the cadre
problem, there is no secret. The more thoroughly the Party members
know the Party’s policies, the better; the more our Party’s policies are
disseminated among the people and the more fully the people
understand them, the better.
The next important question in the work of the Party organization
of North Hamgyong Province is the establishment of revolutionary
order and discipline within the Party.
As I have already mentioned, our Party is a militant detachment.
Our Party needs strict revolutionary order and discipline.
Without establishing revolutionary discipline and order, the Party
cannot become a militant detachment. It is important, of course, to hold
discussions and make suggestions in a democratic way in the Party.
But Party discipline should be observed to the letter.
Certain cadres of city and county Party organizations in North
Hamgyong Province make no scruple to violate at will the instructions
of the provincial Party committee chairman and deceive him. Such acts
are very wrong. These tendencies should be completely wiped out and
intemal-Party discipline and order tightened.
2. ON THE WORK OF THE PEOPLE’S
COMMITTEES
What are the shortcomings in the work of the people’s committees?
The main shortcoming is that the people’s committees at all levels,
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particularly the provincial and county people’s committees, are not
conducting their work according to the new circumstances where our
social system has been transformed on socialist lines.
Unlike the immediate post-liberation or prewar days, the socialist
system has now triumphed in our towns and countryside. It is
important to reorganize the work of the people’s committees in
conformity to the socialist system.
Previously, our peasants were individual farmers. We could not
give them any plan even if we wanted to, nor could we enforce a
planned economy even if we wanted to, and individual peasants
produced and consumed anything they wanted.
Today they are all united in one family. The ri has become a family.
The head of the household in the ri is the ri people’s committee, the
Party organization and the cooperative management board. Here,
everything must always be done according to a plan. Production,
distribution and consumption should be planned. Products should be
disposed of in a planned way; transport, too, should be planned, and
the people should be fed and dressed according to a plan. Ours is a
socialist economy, and so it must always be run according to a plan.
Previously, there were many individual traders and handicraftsmen
in towns. When there were many handicraftsmen in towns, they
manufactured goods and sold them on the market as they wished without
any plan. Merchants purchased farm products from the countryside and
sold them in towns at their own convenience. Needless to say, they did
so to make money and it assumed an exploitative character.
Individual traders and manufacturers produced and traded not to
meet the demands of the people but to make profits. When private trade
and industry still existed, different goods were manufactured without
plan, circulating freely on the market. Therefore, at that time it was not
possible to meet the demands of the working people.
But today private industry has disappeared for ever and there exist
only state-owned and cooperative industries; private trade has
disappeared completely and we have only state-owned and agricultural
cooperative trade. There is no exploitation now, and goods are
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produced and supplied in a planned way to meet the demands of the
people. Thus, it has become possible to definitely improve supplies for
the working people and raise their standard of living.
But never does this happen automatically. Production and
distribution, which individual manufacturers and traders formerly
conducted at will, now have to be organized, planned and directed by
the people’s committees. The people’s committee should organize
production, by choosing which factory should manufacture machines,
which cooperative should produce soap and make paper. Furthermore,
the people’s committee should direct the purchasing of eggs, cabbage
and oil to ensure that these goods are placed on the market. If the
people’s committee, which has become the master in all realms of life,
does not direct, organize and plan production and distribution, nobody
else will do it and society cannot function properly.
Furthermore, in the past, large factories were guided directly by the
central authority and small enterprises were in the hands of
individuals; consequently, there were not many enterprises guided
directly by the province or the county. But the situation is different
now. Following the June Plenary Meeting every locality set up
factories. Large numbers of oxcart shops, vegetable-processing
factories, textile mills, daily commodities factories and others have
been set up. It is you who should manage the factories. Therefore, the
people’s committees have quite a lot of things to do.
When the private economy held sway before the war, it was indeed
difficult to control it, but even if the people’s committee neglected its
work, and only collected taxes, the consequences were not so evident.
So, at that time quite a few people’s committee officials neglected their
work, neither controlling nor guiding the private economy. That habit
still remains in spite of the new current situation, and the officials do
not attend to their work well. Today, if you neglect your work, it goes
wrong immediately.
For instance, because provincial and county people’s committee
chairmen have neglected their work, there are not even enough
vegetables for the workers. Shops in North Hamgyong Province have a
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very meagre amount of bean curd and a small quantity of eggs. This is
because last year the provincial people’s committee did not see to the
growing of beans and did not draw up plans for making bean curd, and
because it did not produce eggs in a planned way.
In the past you could hardly tell whether the provincial people’s
committee was doing its job or not even when it simply sat on its
dignity. But today the situation is fundamentally different. Now, the
work of the people’s committee should run like clockwork. Both
production and trade should be organized and directed in a planned
way. You should have plans for everything-how many eggs should be
produced and how much milk and so on, and all work must be
organized. There should be plans for all matters-where to deliver the
products through the channels of trade network, what to sell today, or
in the autumn, or in winter. You should use your brains and think about
what you have and how to utilize it and how to operate the factory to
replenish what you lack. Instead of doing this, you mechanically
impose the figures you get from the central authority on lower units, so
things cannot go well.
Some people think it quite easy to be a people’s committee
chairman. But, in fact, this is the most difficult job. If a people’s
committee chairman does not do his job well, the people will go
hungry, there will be no vegetables or oil; it will be impossible to repair
houses and there will be no goods in the shops.
The provincial people’s committee chairman has much work to do.
He has to direct the state-owned industry, the local and cooperative
industries and then trade. He has to attend to farming, run schools, train
technicians, look after the hygiene and health services, see to the
building and repairing of houses, the installation of heating apparatus,
water and drainage works. You have plenty of work to do. How, then,
can you have time to live in comfort, indulging in corruption and
dissipation? It is necessary to definitely improve the work of the
people’s committee to fit in with the present institutions and conditions.
Furthermore, one of the greatest defects in the people’s committee
work is the lack of work ability among the people’s committee
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officials. It seems to me that you do not know how to run the
government and manage institutions or the economy.
I think that in most cases it is due to ignorance. Some chairmen can
be bad, but surely not all the people’s committee chairmen are bad!
The main reason why things do not go well seems to lie in your poor
knowledge. You should not pretend to know what you do not actually
know.
It is said that man has a weakness for pretence. To pretend to have
something while you have not, to pretend to be big while you are small,
to pretend to know while you do not know-all this is a malady. Your
province is the worst off of all provinces, so why do you put on an air
of affluence? The people’s committee work goes wrong because of the
lack of knowledge, so why do you pretend to be intelligent? You
should frankly admit your ignorance and learn. People’s committee
chairmen themselves ought to ask that they may be allowed to study
because they do not know much.
To carry out the work of the people’s committee well, I think it is
absolutely necessary to educate the cadres systematically. The ri and
county people’s committee chairmen and vice-chairmen should at least
learn how to operate power organs and run a socialist economy.
They readily make speeches for an hour or two without knowing
anything. So, their speeches are void of content and incomprehensible.
Just as people previously used to do in the Singan Association. Those
who were affiliated with the Singan Association went around carrying
brief cases and made speeches, uttering only empty words: “Masses,
let us rise!” Those days have gone. That cannot solve the problems.
Speeches of that kind will not do now.
You can give guidance only when you are versed in
everything-how to arrange the shops, how to organize the industries,
how to run the stock farms, why the cold-bed rice seedling method is
applied. Nobody knows everything from the outset. Everybody learns
things before doing them.
But it seems you do not even read the newspapers regularly. It is a
very complex matter to build socialism. But there is nothing
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mysterious about it; study, and you will be able to do everything. If
everybody reads books, studies, analyses the reality and uses his head,
that will do. You should patiently learn what you do not know.
I think it would be a good thing for each province to open an
on-the-job training school for people’s committee cadres for a term of
at least half a year in order to educate them systematically. I deem it
necessary to teach them there how to run a socialist economy and how
the people’s committees should work in conformity to the actual
situation of the province.
At the same time, all officials must study. Ignorance is not a sin.
Coming from worker or peasant families, you could not learn before,
could you? You must unfailingly study by yourselves. Cadres should
learn through their actual work on the one hand and through self-study
on the other. You should make it a rule to study for three or four hours
a day.
Without learning you cannot manage the economy or expedite
social development. We cannot mark time. We should keep on
marching ahead in accordance with the law of evolution. That is why
you should acquire knowledge.
Another important question in the work of the people’s committees
in North Hamgyong Province is to definitely oppose bureaucracy.
Ours is a people’s power. The people’s committee itself is opposed to
bureaucracy. But the outdated bureaucratic work method of previous
days still remains in the people’s committees. That should be
eradicated.
We emphasized this point as far back as 1952. Five or six years
after the establishment of the people’s power, lots of bureaucrats
appeared in the people’s government bodies. Bureaucrats do not go to
the masses, and do not lend their ears to their voice; they swagger
about with their noses turned up, hurling abuses as soon as they begin
talking. They are not interested in the living conditions of the people
and only dictate them peremptorily, presuming to think that they alone
are the men of utmost importance, men of best opinions and that the
opinions of others are all wrong, even before hearing them. What can
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you accomplish in this way? Nothing.
If you want to work among the people, you must get in contact with
them and be modest. We come from the people ourselves, don’t we?
You were elected by the people. You were not born to be people’s
committee chairmen under a lucky star. The people elected you,
because they wanted you to do something good for them.
A people’s committee chairman is a servant of the people. That is,
he is a person who does errands for the people. Think this way, and you
will become modest, discard haughtiness and stop ranting at the
people. Instead of ranting at the people, you should teach them, work
with them and learn from them. Only then you will be able to breathe
the same air as the people and they will tell you everything they want to
tell. In curing a man’s disease, you must feel his pulse first and then
find out what his trouble is, mustn’t you? How can you do your work
without knowing how matters stand with the people?
The Party organizations are doing their job by the administrative
method and there is a great deal of bureaucracy in the people’s
committees. Bureaucracy should be uprooted from the people’s
committees.
I visited the Pongam Agricultural Cooperative in Kilju County; I
had a talk with the farmers and asked them if the county people’s
committee chairman had ever come and consulted them about the
farming plan or drawn it up with them. Because the chairmen of the
county Party and people’s committees were present, the farmers would
not answer and only looked at the county Party committee chairman. I
said to him: “You didn’t, did you?” Then the county people’s
committee chairman answered: “No, I didn’t.”
There are only about twenty ri in a county. If the county people’s
committee chairman begins in January and spends a couple of days at
each ri, discusses with the farmers and draws up the farming plan, he
will be through by February, won’t he? What, then, is the difficulty
that makes you just sit down and dictate?
Furthermore, the people’s committee chairmen should know the
problems of the people. How can he who does not know their trouble
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become their servant? Without inquiring into their actual circumstances,
you arbitrarily dictate to them: “This is a state affair, this is a state law.”
The same bureaucracy that existed in 1946 and 1947 is still alive in
North Hamgyong Province. Things have not gone well here because you
dictate to your people in an arbitrary manner.
It is important for the Party to break the pattern of parochialism and
nepotism, and for the people’s committee to break the pattern of
bureaucracy.
Moreover, people’s committee officials should be infinitely loyal to
the Party’s policies. The people’s committee is a power which has
emanated from the people. Who guides the people’s committee and
who leads the revolution? The Party does. The people’s committee
cannot get along without the Party’s policies.
It is not right for the People’s Committee of North Hamgyong
Province to refuse to be guided by the Party and to claim that it is on an
“equal footing” with the Party. The people’s committee officials should
know the Party’s policies better than anybody else, and devotedly
struggle to implement them. Only by doing so can the people’s
committee be called a power that is truly under the Party’s leadership.
The county people’s committee chairman should carry out
everything under the leadership of the county Party committee; the
county Party committee should not take upon itself the work of the
county people’s committee but let the latter work under its leadership;
and the provincial people’s committee should work under the
leadership of the provincial Party committee.
3. ON INDUSTRY
North Hamgyong Province is an important centre for our country’s
key industries. That is why the success or otherwise of its industrial
production plan greatly affects the national economy of our country as
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a whole. If the plan in the industrial branch of North Hamgyong
Province is carried out properly the general national economy can
develop properly, but if not, it hampers the development of the national
economy as a whole.
So far, industries in this province have obtained great results both in
restoration and in new construction. Blast furnaces No. 1 and No. 2 of the
Kim Chaek Iron Works are now in full operation, and its two coke ovens
are turning out coke. Besides, its by-product workshop is operating on
schedule, and the roasting shop is fully restored and in operation.
At the Chong) in Steel Plant, six revolving furnaces as well as the
electric furnaces of the steel shop are now in operation. At the Songjin
Steel Plant the existing equipment has been completely restored and
the construction of a new rolled steel shop is in full swing.
The Chongjin Spinning Mill has also been completely
reconstructed in spite of the many obstacles, and as from this year, it is
in a position to produce more than 14,000 tons of rayon and staple
fibre. The Kilju Pulp Mill, too, has been fully restored, with the paper
output exceeding the prewar level by many times.
The Aoji and Kocham Coal Mines and many other coal mines have
been restored or newly built, producing millions of tons of coal, and a
struggle is being waged to produce over 3,500,000 tons this year.
Meanwhile, with regards to geological survey, the tasks set forth in
1954 have been fulfilled and there is a definite prospect of more coal
production in future. Many mines, including the Musan Mine, have
been fully equipped to be able to increase production.
Furthermore, the Puryong Power Station, Komusan Cement
Factory, Rajin and Chongjin Dockyards and Ranam Machine Plant
have laid foundations for the development of production, and large
factories such as Juul Electric Appliances Factory and Saenggiryong
and Kyongsong Ceramic Factories have been constructed.
In reconstructing these factories and enterprises, all workers,
technicians and office employees acted in response to the call of the
Party Central Committee and have scored worthy achievements with
great vigour.
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This year, the enthusiasm of the workers is still greater and they are
determined to more than double last year’s production. In many
factories and coal mines their resolutions are being carried out on
schedule.
However, some of the leading officials in the industrial sector have
not made due preparations in line with the enthusiastic spirit of the
workers. Particularly, they have not taken proper measures for winter,
not securing all the necessary tools and jigs with the result that there
are some factories which are not fulfilling their plans.
For instance, metallurgical factories have not stored up enough
fittings to ensure the plan for the first quarter, and they try to get them
only after something goes wrong with the metallurgical furnaces. At
the Musan Mine, they did not take measures for winter and, as a result,
the water pipes were frozen and there was no water supply, which
caused troubles to excavating and ore dressing operations. Part of the
coal mines are concerned only about the extraction of coal without first
doing the basic and preliminary tunnellings. Therefore, production is
being held back now for lack of coal to extract.
Furthermore, some leading officials still do not know the main
factor in their work, doing things at random and, consequently, they
fail to do anything.
Officials of the Chongjin Steel Plant should have mainly
emphasized the normalization of production by waging a struggle to
increase the utilization of the equipment and accurately observing the
standard regulations of operation. Instead, they merely dispersed their
work for capital construction and what not, with the result that they
have failed to carry out their production plan. Things also did not go
well during the first quarter because they dispersed the work force of
the repair and maintenance shop in this or that job. True, things have
been getting normalized recently. Besides, officials of this plant are not
yet fully prepared to carry out the strict instructions of the Party
Central Committee that daily plan must be carried out on that particular
day.
Their efforts are not yet satisfactory enough to introduce advanced
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methods of work and elevate the technical levels and skills of the
workers. They neglect the work of introducing new techniques, raising
the technical levels and skills of the workers and elevating production
efficiency, only paying lip service to it. By and large, as for the
advanced working methods invented by the workers or by the
technicians, they make a fuss about them, but are very bad at
introducing, developing and popularizing them promptly.
Not only that. They tend to organize work haphazardly without a
keen sense of responsibility about the fact that if things do not go well
with their factory, it will also affect other mills. The officials and
workers of the Chongjin Steel Plant do not seem to feel really sorry
about the fact that their failure to produce the planned amount of
granulated iron this year affects the Songjin Steel Plant and many other
enterprises. These failures have adversely affected the industrial
development of the whole nation as well as the fulfilment of the
first-quarter plan of North Hamgyong Province for industrial
production. These shortcomings should be remedied immediately.
Now 1 would like to speak on the tasks of each sector of industry.
In the metal industry, you should first of all struggle to produce
more pig iron, granulated iron and rolled steel, upholding the Party
slogan: “Iron and the machine are the king of industry!” The Kim
Chaek Iron Works should take technical measures for lowering the
coefficient of utilization per cubic metre of the blast furnace volume
and improve the work of the raw-material charging system. It should
also take effective measures to introduce pellets which can further
increase the productivity of the blast furnace and save on coke and
which have a great importance also for the solution of the lump ore
problem.
It is an urgent task for the Kim Chaek Iron Works to complete the
construction of the converters by April 15, as was decided upon by the
workers, and begin the production of steel. Expansion projects of the
Kim Chaek Iron Works in future will be very ambitious. So you should
have the general blueprint of the expansion works mapped out soon
and first step up the construction of two additional coke ovens. The
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factory should be enlarged to such an extent as to produce
approximately 2,500,000 to 3,000,000 tons of pig iron at the first stage,
and to produce steel and rolled steel by a continuous method. With the
prospect of the reunification of our country before us, the factory
should be expanded later to produce and process 4 million tons of pig
iron for the manufacture of steel and rolled steel, and should be turned
into the biggest metallurgical centre of our country.
The Songjin Steel Plant should not only shorten the melting time in
steel manufacturing by electricity and increase its steel output, but
should also decrease its consumption of electricity. This time I noticed
that each furnace there consumes approximately 400 kWh more
electricity a day. An end should be put to this wastage.
The most important task for the Songjin Steel Plant should be to
raise the quality in the production of rolled steel. A struggle should be
waged to eliminate rejections. The workers and technicians of this
plant should realize that theirs is the only plant which manufactures
special steel in our country, that the steel materials produced here are
all used for our production of machines and that the production results
of this plant will, therefore, greatly affect the development of our
nation’s engineering industry.
Furthermore, at the Songjin Steel Plant, the heavy jobs, including
the forging section, should be mechanized to facilitate the work. A
great deal of tough work has still to be done. It is necessary for the
technicians and workers to join forces and work towards the
mechanization of laborious work.
Also, the 600-ton press at the forging shop should be quickly
restored to ease the shortage of press capacity in our country. The new
project for the rolled steel shop should be completed by the end of
June, and the construction of the middle-size rolled steel shop by May
Day.
The Songjin Steel Plant should make more use of equipment, above
all that of the repair and maintenance shop.
The Chongjin Steel Plant should struggle to normalize the
production of granulated iron. The operation of the revolving furnaces
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now in production should be normalized to raise each furnace’s daily
production to 80 tons. A struggle should be launched to produce over
100 tons, so that the annual production of granulated iron would be
more than 200,000 tons, not to speak of 150,000 tons.
Granulated iron is very important for our country. It can be
produced inexpensively because we do not have to use imported coal.
Granulated iron is one of the most important raw materials for our steel
industry. All the workers, technicians and office employees of this
plant should fully realize the importance of the production of
granulated iron and strive to increase it. Some time ago the manager
said that production efficiency could be raised if hot blast is blown into
the furnace. Therefore, hot blast equipment should be installed right
away.
Next, dust-collecting devices should be installed to improve the
working conditions. They have been put in at some places, but we still
need more. Because these devices have not been made properly, the
workshop which is not in itself noxious, is now considered to be so.
Dust-catching equipment should be installed to eliminate noxious
conditions for the workers.
The setting up of thermal power plants to utilize the waste heat of
the furnaces is an urgent necessity. The slag should also be used
rationally. In other countries slag is fully utilized.
Furthermore, revolving furnaces No. 7 and No. 8 should be rapidly
built to produce more granulated iron. This factory should be
converted into a plant which will produce up to 500,000 tons of
granulated iron per year in future and, at the same time, measures
should be taken for the manufacturing of steel directly from granulated
iron by the continuous steel-manufacturing method. An important task
is to raise the technical level of the workers and establish order and
discipline for the observance of the standard regulations of operation.
This will increase the output of granulated iron.
Now the Musan Mine is confronted with the important task of
meeting the ever-increasing demands for raw materials of the Kim
Chaek Iron Works and the Chongjin Steel Plant as a result of the
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increased production of pig iron and granulated iron and the growth of
the steel industry. The Musan Mine should see to it that the equipment
for mining and ore dressing is repaired and readjusted and the
production efficiency raised.
A struggle should also be launched to improve the quality of iron
ore. Unless the Musan Mine does a good job, the work of metallurgical
factories cannot go well. It is said that production is not well organized
now at the Musan Mine. So, I think measures should be taken by the
Party to improve the work at this mine.
Capital construction of nonferrous metal mines, already developed
in such localities as Samhae, Ryonchon and Hoeryong, should be
pushed ahead rapidly, so that plenty of rare metal ores are produced to
speed up the production of special steel.
The equipment in the repair and maintenance shops of all
enterprises and in the engineering industry of this province should be
used to manufacture equipment for the metallurgical factories and to
produce plenty of spare parts for them, giving priority to the Kim
Chaek Iron Works and the Chongjin Steel Plant. Equipment and
accessories required by the Chongjin Steel Plant seem to amount to
approximately 1,200 tons; the Ranam Machine Plant, Chongjin and
Raj in Dockyards and various other machine factories should give
priority to their production. The Ryongsong Machine Factory should
also manufacture the equipment and accessories needed by those
factories.
The Kim Chaek Iron Works and Chongjin Steel Plant should be
restored quickly, and the converters of the former and revolving
furnaces of the latter should be built or enlarged rapidly. Only by so
doing can we meet our ever-increasing demands for steel.
Ceramic factories in the province should produce and supply in
good time the firebricks which are required by the metallurgical
factories, and they should also improve their quality.
Moreover, lumber, iron materials and cement should be allocated
preferentially to the construction of metallurgical factories. The State
Planning Commission and all ministries should help to ensure priority
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to metal production. Otherwise, we cannot fulfil this year’s general
plan for industrial production. Only by giving priority to the metal
industry, can we build machines and expand the machine factories.
In the coal sector, all coal mines should strive to produce more coal.
First of all, a struggle should be waged to mine a little more high
caloric coal than envisaged in this year’s plan. If possible, they should
mine 100,000 tons more, which will enable other factories to raise their
output.
To produce more coal, efforts should be concentrated on the capital
construction of the existing coal mines; basic and preliminary
tunnellings should be kept ahead of production. You should also strive
to increase the speed of tunnelling to secure the coal which is to be
extracted. Meanwhile, hydraulic transport should be widely
introduced, and the introduction of hydraulic coal cutting should be
prepared and realized. You should improve the quality of coal and
eliminate the practice of increasing the output by mixing it with debris.
That is a self-deceit, which lowers the caloric production of other
enterprises.
The most important issue for the coal mines is to perfect the safety
devices and the labour protection arrangements and to strengthen work
order and discipline in the pits. Without discipline and order, it is
impossible to prevent accidents. A strict shift system and a strict
checkup system must be established in the coal mines.
North Hamgyong Province should endeavour to raise its
bituminous coal output to 8 million tons and more in the coming two or
three years. If the coal output of North Hamgyong Province hits that
mark, we can solve our coal problem more satisfactorily.
To reach our aim we should see to it that efforts are concentrated on
capital construction in the existing coal mines so that in a year or two
the Aoji and Kocham Coal Mines each turn out at least 1.5 million
tons. The Kogonwon, Hamyon and Onsong Coal Mines should be
expanded to produce at least one million tons each. Otherwise, the coal
problem cannot be solved.
Another important thing is to develop the power industry. The
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situation of electricity in our country is very much strained. Before
and during the war, as well as immediately after the armistice, our
country was said to have more than enough electricity. But industry
rapidly developed following the armistice, and by 1958 its output was
four times as much as that of the prewar days. Thus the consumption
of electricity has greatly increased and we are now short of
electricity.
Our country has many hydroelectric power stations but only a few
thermal power plants. Consequently, we lack electricity, especially in
the dry season. The production of electricity should logically precede
the development of other industries. Only then can these industries be
developed. Especially, in order to develop the chemical industry
extensively during a second five-year plan, we should produce more
electricity. Today the electricity problem is so important for the Party.
That is why the Party Central Committee now plans to construct more
power stations in the shortest time possible.
To reach this aim, the Party organizations, all Party members and
working people in North Hamgyong Province should be mobilized to
raise the output of the hydroelectric power stations in this province
and, on the other hand, begin to construct a power plant on the Sodu
River.
The Sodu, a tributary of the Tuman River, should be dammed up
and its water brought up to Ranam and Puryong to raise the head so
that a huge power plant is erected. The plant will have an output of
approximately 337,500 kW. The construction of the power plant
should be started in the near future and a struggle should be waged to
complete it in a few years.
The people of North Hamgyong Province should work
energetically on this project. You must not expect any aid from other
provinces. They all have their own tasks to attend to. The same is the
case with Ryanggang Province, North and South Phyongan Provinces,
North and South Hwanghae Provinces. Let us build the Sodusu Power
Station with the efforts of the people of North Hamgyong Province.
At the same time, for afforestation and river conservation in the
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province, a movement of the masses should be launched to dam up all
the rivers, big and small, for the production of electric power and for
irrigation.
Comrades, a struggle should be waged everywhere to produce
electricity. We should fight to do away with the practice of casting off
the heat at the factories and generate electricity by making full use of
waste heat, rebuild the existing thermal power stations quickly and also
build many new big ones. Since North Hamgyong Province abounds in
coal and has many large factories, it can set up many power stations
which will make use of waste heat. We should, in this way, satisfy the
demands of industry for electric power by giving priority to the
production of electricity.
It is necessary to develop the engineering industry on a large scale
since there are many heavy-industry enteiprises, coal mines and other
various factories in North Hamgyong Province.
In a year or two the Ranam Machine Plant should be expanded so
that the number of its machine tools may reach at least 200 to 250, and,
later on, it should be developed into a large factory with 500 to 600
machines. There are many other engineering factories in North
Hamgyong Province, and all of them should be developed.
The Chongjin Dockyard and Rajin Dockyard have now begun to
build 3,000-ton ships, but they should build bigger ones in future. The
Chongjin Dockyard should later switch from building wooden vessels
to building iron-clad ones. It is important for the Rajin Dockyard to
learn techniques and lay the foundations well for the manufacture of
high-speed engines for itself.
Furthermore, all the factories in North Hamgyong Province have
plenty of cutting tools for repairs and maintenance. Here, they are
currently making simple cutting tools by themselves and carrying on
the work of enlarging the factories. It is a very good thing. I absolutely
support your zealous participation in this undertaking.
The Juul Flax Mill manufactured single-purpose cutting machines
with five cutting tools. I was told that as from April this year, the mill
is going to manufacture 10 cutting tools every month. Very good. The
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manager and the Party committee chairwoman especially think and
work boldly. They are determined to develop this mill into a
flax-textile mill by making lathes for themselves and thus increasing
the number of machines and manufacturing looms. They are really
enterprising.
At the Komusan Cement Factory, I have seen them cut large
equipment with small machine tools and they say they will build a kiln
by themselves. That is precisely the way how the machine-building
industry should be developed. If the metal-working industry also takes
creative initiative in this way and all other factories work in the same
way, 1 think North Flamgyong Province will be able to make many
cutting machines and expand many factories by itself.
All factories will do well to follow the example of the Juul Flax
Mill. Make plenty of machines on your own.
You should see to it that machine tools do not take too much space.
The enterprises in the fishing sector are the worst in doing this and in
using them ineffectively. They scatter the machine tools here and there
unnecessarily. They should be utilized more intensively and repair
workshops should be well equipped.
The chemical industry should also be developed. The Komusan
Cement Factory must carry out its plan by further raising the capacity
of a calcining kiln now in operation; they should quickly complete
another one which they are going to set up by themselves, and rapidly
raise the production efficiency of the ten vertical kilns already
constructed. The operation efficiency of the existing calcining kilns
should be increased, and this year at least 10,000 more tons of cement
should be turned out, and the factory should be developed into a plant
which will be capable of producing over 500,000 tons of cement per
year.
The Aoji Chemical Factory should be rebuilt quickly to produce
methanol next year. The manager of this factory seems to have the old
habit of keeping the plant, just doing nothing in fact. Fie should work
intensely and thus restore the plant rapidly, equip it with better
techniques, produce methanol quickly and also organize the work of
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refining oil in future. This is what we expect and what the Party wants
him to do.
In light industry, as I have already mentioned, the Chongjin
Spinning Mill has decided, and is already working, to produce
approximately 14,000 tons of rayon and staple fibre this year. Workers,
technicians and office employees of this mill have devoted great
energies to the reconstruction of the mill; they are also now carrying
out their production plan according to schedule. I am sure they will
also fulfil their plan in future.
An important task at present is to improve the quality of our
products. The yarn should be thinner, stronger and prettier; only then it
would be possible to weave good drapery. While waging a struggle to
improve the quality of products, you should complete the work of
rehabilitating the mill and installing more equipment. Thus, you should
produce 20,000 tons of rayon and staple fibre next year. I think this
factory should also take steps to produce pulp from maize stalks and
reeds.
Next, you should see to it that the health hazards of this mill’s
spinning shop are eliminated and make it a hygienic and convenient
place to work in.
The production results of the Hoeryong Paper Mill are good. The
Kilju Paper Mill is lagging a little behind, and it should increase
production quickly. As for those sections which are not yet fully
equipped with production facilities, the Party organizations should
appeal to the workers to wage a struggle to perfect the equipment
quickly.
Next, sugar beet should be cultivated in the Hoeryong area and a
sugar refinery erected there. First of all, this year you should try out an
initial production of sugar, and next year, complete the construction of
a factory with a production capacity of about 10,000 tons. All the
equipment necessary for the factory has been ordered; so the
construction should be pushed decidedly forward.
You were already given the task of constructing the sugar refinery
in 1954, but even the sugar-beet seeds were lost. This year, you should
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unfailingly build the sugar refinery, and at the same time you should
cultivate sugar beet.
As you know, North Hamgyong Province has tremendous
possibilities of meat production. It is necessary to strive to produce
meat, milk and eggs in large quantities and set up plants for processing
them.
In North Hamgyong Province, factories such as the Juul Electric
Appliances, Saenggiryong Ceramic and Kyongsong Ceramic are
manufacturing porcelain. This is very important. The Party should pay
attention to those ceramic factories. Porcelain is indispensable for the
people’s life.
The porcelain of our country is traditionally famous. Our ancestors
produced excellent porcelain. Today, however, we are worse than our
ancestors in porcelain production.
We should develop the ceramic industry and raise the quality of the
products. Baking time should be fully ensured and the technical level
heightened in order to improve the quality of the porcelain.
I have seen boundless possibilities of mechanization at the Juul
Electric Appliances Factory. No mechanization has been carried out at
the Saenggiryong and Kyongsong Ceramic Factories. The Juul Electric
Appliances Factory has invented machines and used them in
production. It is advisable to share this experience to introduce
machines, raise the technical level and develop the ceramic factories in
a planned way.
From now on, you should turn the district of Juul into the best
centre for porcelain production in our country and make the Juul
porcelain famous. You have good clay, the feldspar is nearby, you
have all necessary conditions for porcelain production, and so you can
manufacture plenty of good porcelain.
As for the local industry in the province, it is important to
strengthen the newly-built factories organizationally and
economically. Since the June Plenary Meeting last year, quite a few
local industries have also been set up in North Hamgyong Province.
This is a very good thing.
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You should strive to further expand and develop local factories,
draw all the unused labour of every county into production, and
strengthen the producers’ cooperatives organizationally and
economically. And you should tap plenty of local raw-material
resources. You need to do away with the bad habit of relying on other
places, and ensure production with locally available raw materials.
As has already been mentioned, you may produce porcelain and
you may also set up factories which use shells as raw materials. The
Unggi Disabled Soldiers’ Cooperative makes excellent buttons from
shells. You can get as many shells as you want at the seashore. With
them you can make ornaments and many other things.
The seaweed zostera marina is also useful for various purposes. In
Raj in, I saw fibre made from zostera marina, and it was quite excellent.
If you collect the seaweed in quantity and process it, you can substitute
it for cotton and also weave it for lining cloth.
Furthermore, North Hamgyong Province produces crystal in
abundance. With the crystal you can make various kinds of industrial
art objects.
Not only that. With willow withes you can make wicker trunks and
various articles for travel. If you raise the quality, you can even export
them. You should make things like wicker trunks and baskets with
willow withes on a large scale.
It will be good to utilize our abundant local resources in this way.
You should also see to it that food-processing factories are set up in
county seats to press oil, process meat, vegetables and fruit in a big
way.
It is an important issue for local industry to raise the quality of
products. You should wage a struggle to increase production, raise the
quality and lower production costs.
Both the provincial and county people’s committees still do not
guide local industry properly. The local industry management bureau of
the provincial people’s committee and the local industry management
sections of the county people’s committees should strive for the planned
operation of the province-owned and county-owned factories.
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4. ON AGRICULTURE
In agriculture, the task we assigned to the Party organization of
North Hamgyong Province in 1954 was to attend principally to
agro-fishery and agro-stockbreeding. The Party organization of North
Hamgyong Province, however, carried out this task very badly.
Today, I would like to stress again the task of the Party
organizations of North Hamgyong Province as far as agriculture is
concerned: North Hamgyong Province should lay emphasis on solving
the grain problem and pay no less attention to developing
stockbreeding and fisheries.
Thus, you should farm well and also produce plenty of meat and
fish.
You should catch more fish and produce more meat, eggs and milk
by making good use of your environment. There are only small plains
in North Hamgyong Province. Therefore, those who live near the
mountains should engage mainly in stockbreeding and those near the
sea, in fishery as well.
By and large, you can attend to both farming and stockbreeding in
mountainous districts, both farming and fishery in seaside areas and
exclusively farming in some districts. The majority should engage
mainly in agro-fishery or agro-stockbreeding. It is a matter of primary
importance to make good use of the mountains and the sea.
Forestry and water conservation is an important task which devolves
on the provincial Party organization for the development of agriculture
and stockbreeding. Without forestry and water conservation, it is
impossible to develop agriculture and stockbreeding.
North Hamgyong Province is geographically an area with high
mountains, a nearby sea and frequent fog. Because the mountains are
high, there is drought during the dry weather, but when it rains a little,
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water rushes down, causing floods which wash away much land and
often people are injured. That is why you in North Hamgyong Province
must regard forestry and water conservation as the most important
task. Everything will go well only when you put an end to the damages
caused by floods and get rid of the damage of drought by introducing
non-paddy field irrigation and laying out paddy fields through the
harnessing of water.
You should start with the area between Kim Chaek and Puryong
Counties, and then work your way northward. If each county dams its
rivers to make reservoirs, conserves water in the rainy season and uses it
for irrigation during drought, flood and drought damages can be
prevented. The provincial Party organization should, therefore, start the
work of forestry and water conservation as a mass movement this year.
Rivers such as the Kalpha of Kim Chaek County, the Namdae of
Kilju County, the Ryongsan and Hwadae of Hwadae County, the Juul
and Onchon of Kyongsong County should all be dammed up. These
water- conservation projects must be carried out in such a way as to
make it possible to generate electricity, prevent flood and drought
damages and breed fish.
If you do so, peasants of North Hamgyong Province will also be
well-off. It all depends on whether you work quickly or slowly. The
standard of living of the peasants in South Phyongan Province is rising
fast precisely because many difficult projects, such as the Anju
irrigation project, were carried out.
Therefore, irrigation works should be undertaken as a mass
movement. Irrigation will enable North Hamgyong Province alone to
get a generating capacity of approximately 40,000 to 50,000 kW. This
is not a small figure. Most of the forestry and river conservation
projects should be completed by 1961, starting from the second half of
the current year. The issue depends on whether you have confidence in
completing them in two years’ time or not. If you do not get to work
but just remain trembling, you will never complete them. South
Hamgyong Province has already started all its projects. North
Hamgyong Province should also follow suit as is pointed out in the
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Party decisions.
The forestry and river conservation projects should first be started
on a large scale in the districts south of Chongjin. The workers and the
urban students and youths will help in these projects. When the Anju
irrigation project was started in South Phyongan Province immediately
after the armistice, many people laughed at it, saying: ‘They are trying
the impossible.” But we have done it. If North Hamgyong Province
carries out its forestry and river conservation projects, approximately
20,000 hectares of cultivated land can be irrigated and floods damages
prevented almost completely.
Now, in allotting crops, it is important to cultivate those which
resist the cold. Crops which can resist the cold should be selected and
cultivated. It is a dangerous thing to make a speculative venture. Crops
which stand the cold appear to yield less harvest, but they in fact yield
more because they are safe. By taking risks you may suffer a great loss.
As for the paddy, you should also cultivate strong seeds which resist
the cold. In the region south of Kilju there has been much controversy
over the issue of cultivating Suwon No. 82 or Wonya No. 2, but they
should cultivate Wonya No. 2 which resists frosts. Suwon No. 82
should be planted when it is proved safe by experiments.
As for the non-paddy crops potatoes should be cultivated as the
principal crop in areas where they grow well and maize where it
thrives. In other words, the principle of the right crop in the right place
should be observed.
The cold-bed rice seedling method should be applied where
experiments have shown positive results. But you should not force
your people to apply it where it is not fit. In my opinion, you can grow
cold-bed rice seedlings here since they quicken transplanting by a
month.
In this region, you should grow a lot of cold-resistant industrial
crops such as soy bean, wild sesame, flax, hemp, sugar beet, tobacco
and hops. To press cooking oil and make bean curd, you should have
soy beans. You should grow soy beans not only as a catch crop but also
as the main crop. Particularly in areas north of Chongjin, it is necessary
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to grow plenty of industrial crops such as wild sesame and sugar beet.
Since North Hamgyong Province is a factory region, it is important to
attend to farming in such a way as to supply the workers with enough
vegetables, cooking oil and the like.
Furthermore, you must produce seeds which are suitable for this
region. You cannot get along with the experimental farm in Kyongsong
alone. Each county and each agricultural cooperative should have an
experimental field and produce the seeds suitable for this region.
In general, stockbreeding should be the main part of agriculture in
North Hamgyong Province. So it is good to create a lot of pastureland
and cultivate fodder crops in quantities. For instance, at the
Sangphyong Cooperative, Kim Chaek County, potatoes grown on
good fields yielded seven tons per hectare, but girasols grown on poor
fields yielded 22 tons. Pigs eat girasols just as well as potatoes, and it is
much advantageous to grow girasols for fodder.
Moreover, steep slopes and wastelands should be turned into
grazing grounds. Grass should also be planted to create pastures. In
regard to this point, let us cultivate the grass which we have and which
grows well in our country. Our hills abound with arrowroot, purslane
and clover. You should get their seeds and plant them. Our peasants
know well what kinds of grass pigs and cattle like.
In this way, we should create fodder bases and raise mainly rabbits,
sheep, goats and milch cows in mountain areas. The Korean breed of
cattle must be improved into milch cows. They are grass-eating
animals. Grass-eating animals should be raised mainly in mountainous
districts as they abound with grass, and in the plains, you should raise
mainly chicken, rabbits and pigs. You should be audacious, not
passive, with stockbreeding. There are comrades who accept it against
their will. But I am certain you will have success if you tackle the
problem with determination.
In the plains, lakes and ponds should be utilized. There are many
ponds and lakes in Raj in County. It would be very good to use them
for raising crucian carp, and also use the weeds in the ponds as
fodder for raising ducks. You can also attend to bee cultivation and
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fresh-water fish breeding here.
Stress should be laid on agro-fishery along the coast, and the
seaweed, tangle, sea cucumber, oyster and so on be raised. You should
attend to the cultivation work and derive a good income from it at the
seashore, instead of only hoping for easy gains.
Various fruit trees should also be planted in the mountains. Do not
cultivate only such things as apple tree which takes seven or eight
years to bear fruit. You should grow trees which produce fruit quickly,
and you should especially improve wild-fruit trees. We should plant
large numbers of fruit trees for the benefit of the coming generations.
We are badly off now because our grandfathers did nothing, aren’t we?
If we do a good job, our posterity will be well-off. You should cultivate
mushrooms and brackens, plant mulberry trees and create groves for
tussah so that you raise silkWorms. Since you have abundant acacia
flowers and bush clover blooms here, you can also produce plenty of
honey.
All these projects precisely mean a utilization of the mountain and
sea areas.
In animal husbandry, it is important to intensify breeding. All the
cooperatives should breed their own stock, instead of expecting the
agricultural and livestock farms to deliver breeds to them.
The prevention of livestock epizootics should be intensified for the
development of animal husbandry. The most important thing in stock-
breeding is to prevent epizootics. Therefore, you should strictly
observe the regulations on the prevention of epizootics, and maintain
good hygienic and cultural conditions.
There are many large agricultural and livestock farms in North
Hamgyong Province. The Party should give right guidance to improve
the work of those farms.
Farm No. 5 should be turned into a stock farm which produces pork
and raises big domestic animals. So far it has produced potatoes, but
now it must produce meat. State-owned agricultural and livestock
farms should reorganize all their work so as to produce meat. From
now on, all grain produced by the agricultural and livestock farms
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should be turned into meat. Farm No. 5, Floeryong Stock Farm,
Ryongje Stock Farm and Rajin Stock Farm should rapidly increase
their meat production.
All livestock breeding stations should also produce meat and other
livestock products. Of course, this does not mean that they should give
up breeding. As soon as new breeds arrive in our country, breeding
should be done promptly; most of the agricultural cooperatives should
also do their own breeding.
Unggi County had better try, on an experimental basis, to turn the
whole county into a single state farm by amalgamating all its
agricultural cooperatives, fishing stations and fishing cooperatives. Its
advantage is in the possibility of using manpower seasonally and
rationally and developing a large-scale, versatile economy, by
attending to fishery, pisciculture, duck raising and farming.
The Kyongsong Livestock Breeding Station should be reorganized
to supply Chongjin directly with livestock products. This is necessary
to supply the workers of Chongjin with rabbit, chicken and eggs.
5. ON THE FISHING INDUSTRY
In the fishing industry, deep-sea fishing should be developed. Even
after the adoption of the decision of the April 1957 Plenary Meeting of
the Party Central Committee, the work is still not going well.
For deep-sea fishing, we should build big fishing vessels and
purchase some.
Furthermore, fishing for whales and dolphins should be developed.
Thus, the oil problem should be solved.
The greatest weakness in the fishing industry at present is that you
work only seasonally and do not attend to medium and small-scale
fishing and inshore fishing. You should fish year in and year out, never
leaving the sea, and increase the number of times you go out fishing.
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At present, this number is very low. Workers in other sectors work
over 300 days a year, but the workers in the fishing industry do not
seem to work even 150 days. They should go out fishing at least 250 to
300 days.
The bureaucracy of the dockyard officials offers quite an obstacle
here. When a vessel is sent in for repair they take a long time to carry
out the necessary work. Because they do not repair it properly, it soon
goes out of order and has to be repaired again. Besides this, they repair
the vessel only when it is accompanied by more than ten people
including the chief engineer. That is the case with the Chongjin and
Rajin Dockyards, and bureaucracy is rampant particularly at the Unggi
Repair Station.
Moreover, the fishing stations are just idle, when big vessels are
under repair, even though they can fish with small boats. The fishing
industry must rid itself of seasonal limitations.
And it is advisable to see that all the family members of the fishing
station employees go to work. It is necessary to employ them in the
work of drying the nets, darning them and making new ones.
The next important issue in developing the fishing industry is to
intensify fresh-water breeding and shallow-sea culture. You must grow
tangle, seaweed, sea cucumber, trepang, etc., in the shallow sea, and
plenty of caip, crucian caip, rainbow trout and other fish in fresh water.
Next, you should raise the quality of processed seafood.
You should collect ice and set up many refrigeration plants so that
fresh and frozen fish is supplied in large quantities, and you should
also improve the quality of processed pollack. In processing pollack, it
would be advisable also to gut them, salt them and dry them flat. And a
plant should be built to produce fish meal from their heads. Above all,
you should install facilities for drying fish and process it.
Furthermore, you should give more scientific and technical
guidance to the fishing industry. Our fishing industry lacks science and
technology. Fishing is still done according to old methods and it
advances at a snail’s pace. This practice should be vigorously
counteracted.
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Young people should enter this sector in large numbers. To bring
about great innovations in the fishing industry, the youth should go out
to sea.
Meanwhile, an ideological struggle should be conducted among the
fishermen. A struggle should be waged against the old habit of doing
things in a hit-or-miss way, against the speculative spirit, and against
the tendency to carouse it recklessly because of a good catch at sea, and
then to have a soak on the pretext of a failure.
6. ON CONSTRUCTION WORK
Now, let me speak of the work in the construction sector.
In construction work, it is important to build more dwellings for the
workers. We should build dwellings for 5,000 families in Chongjin this
year by adding 3,000 to the planned figure. To build dwellings for
5,000 families, the Kim Chaek Iron Works and Songjin Steel Plant
should produce more steel and make wire rods and round steel, and the
Komusan Cement Factory should produce and supply 10,000 more
tons of cement to Chongjin. Dwellings for 1,500 families should be
built in the city of Kim Chaek over and above the plan to be able to
solve the housing problem.
In construction, efforts must be concentrated on utilizing plenty of
local materials and the quality of construction must be improved.
An important issue in rural construction is to stop building houses
on the plains against the Party’s policy, and build them at the foot of
hills. You should see to it that the houses are moved to the foot of hills
from the fields so that more land can be made available and ploughing
can be mechanized. New houses which have already been built cannot
be pulled down. But you should strengthen the struggle to build houses
at the foot of hills in future and thus prevent the cultivated land from
being encroached upon.
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In North Hamgyong Province, people do not think of repairing and
reclaiming the existing buildings into use. There are many good houses
in Raj in, but they do not try to restore and use them in spite of the
instructions given some years ago.
Would it not be nice to transfer the deteriorated houses at the
abandoned mines to the agricultural cooperatives to restore them into
schools or houses for the cooperative members, instead of leaving them
out of use to fall into decay? A struggle should be waged against the
incorrect tendency of people who leave the houses to deteriorate,
refusing to give them to others, while they are not using them themselves.
Finally, the whole Party should pay attention to the problem of
improving the workers’ standard of living. North Hamgyong Province
has failed to supply its workers with enough meat and vegetables.
We carry out the Party’s policies to defend the interests of the
workers and to raise the standard of living of our working people.
The factories must install laundries and barber shops, should fully
provide dining halls, stores, dormitories, etc., not to speak of public
baths, kindergartens and schools, and wage a struggle to keep them
clean. Meanwhile, hospitals and clinics should serve the working
people efficiently. In the districts where there are factories and
enterprises, a struggle should be waged to ensure that there would
never be shortages of vegetables, cooking oil, bean curd, milk, meat
and eggs, and, above all, to ensure that every grocer’s shop has fresh
fish in store.
These are the important tasks of the Party organizations of North
Hamgyong Province. I am firmly convinced that after this meeting
there will be a great change and a big leap forward in the work of the
provincial Party organization and the people’s committees and in all
sectors of the national economy.
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SPEECH AT THE CEREMONY FOR THE
COMMISSIONING OF BLAST FURNACES
NOS. 1 AND 2 AND COKE OVEN NO. 2
OF THE KIM CHAEK IRON WORKS
March 23, 1959
Dear comrades,
Dear comrade workers, technicians and office employees of the
Kim Chaek Iron Works,
Today we are holding this ceremony to mark the commissioning of
furnaces and coke oven of the Kim Chaek Iron Works with a great
sense of pleasure and satisfaction.
On behalf of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea
and the Government of the Republic, I would like to avail myself of
this opportunity to offer my warmest congratulations and thanks to the
workers, technicians and office employees who have rebuilt the
furnaces and coke oven successfully.
As rapid progress was made in our socialist construction after the
December 1956 Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee, the
demands of the national economy for iron grew sharply. To meet these
demands the furnaces needed to be reconstructed urgently. That was
why the Party Central Committee proposed the important task of
ensuring uninterrupted production of pig iron by rebuilding furnace
No. 2 before starting large repair work on furnace No. 1 which was
already in operation. At the same time, the Party called for early
completion of repair work on furnace No. 1 to increase the output at the
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Kim Chaek Iron Works as quickly as possible.
The last war brought havoc to the furnaces of the Kim Chaek Iron
Works. Therefore, either the rebuilding of furnace No. 2 or large repair
work on furnace No. 1 was no less a huge and difficult project than
building a new furnace. Our Party, however, believed firmly that our
workers, who were not only trained and seasoned in the fierce war but
also bravely overcame untold hardship arising in postwar
rehabilitation, would be able to fulfil such a difficult task ahead of
schedule.
The workers and technicians of the iron works creditably lived up
to the Party’s expectations by demonstrating unparalleled labour
enthusiasm and creativeness in rebuilding the furnaces and the coke
oven.
Though inexperienced in building furnaces, you were successful in
solving difficult technical problems, dispelling all sorts of mystery
about techniques, in response to the Party’s call “Think boldly and act
boldly!”, and bravely surmounted many difficulties and hardships
which cropped up in the process. You made large-sized and many
other processing machines to secure on your own most of the
machinery and equipment necessary for the reconstruction of the
furnaces and coke oven, thereby shortening by far the duration of the
projects.
The furnaces of the Kim Chaek Iron Works have not been rebuilt in
status quo ante, but were further equipped with up-to-date techniques.
By converting the former method of iron band into a method of iron
cover and effecting many other technical transformations, the life span
of furnaces has been prolonged, their production capacity raised
considerably and the conditions for workers’ protection radically
improved.
The recent reconstruction projects produced Heroes of Labour and
many other labour innovators.
All the workers, technicians and office employees, who
participated in the reconstruction of furnaces and coke oven, united
firmly and mounted a mass innovation movement, learning from and
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helping each other, with the sole aim of carrying out the tasks
proposed by the Party. Thus, they accomplished brilliant labour
feats-rebuilding furnace No. 2 with a capacity of 350,000 tons in
only six months, cutting the duration of work by half, and completing
large repair work on furnace No. 1 which has the same capacity, in
three months.
Your meritorious action on behalf of our Party, country and people
will be recorded for ever in the history of our socialist construction
with great pride by the Korean working class. Our Party and people are
very glad of your achievements and appreciate them highly.
The magnificent furnaces soaring high in the middle of the iron
works demonstrate the heroic spirit and inexhaustible creative power
of our working class, and the glowing molten iron pouring out of
furnaces symbolizes the burning enthusiasm of our working class
boundlessly loyal to the Party’s call.
The furnaces and coke oven of this iron works have been
reconstructed with the positive support of major factories and
enterprises and the broad sections of the masses throughout the
country. Workers of the Hwanghae Iron Works, Songjin Steel Plant
and many other factories and enteiprises produced and supplied
materials and equipment needed to rebuild the furnaces in good time.
In particular, workers of the Pyongyang Electric Appliances Plant, for
the first time in our country, made technically complicated skip
switchboards needed for the charging equipment and sent them to the
Kim Chaek Iron Works, with the result that we could automatize the
charging equipment by our own efforts. And a large number of rural
youths and students in North Hamgyong Province helped in the
reconstruction of furnaces and coke oven with their precious labour.
Availing myself of this opportunity, I would like to extend my
warm gratitude to all the workers, technicians, rural youths and
students who gave support to the reconstruction of furnaces and coke
oven of the Kim Chaek Iron Works.
The operation of two furnaces capable of producing a total of
700,000 tons of pig iron at the Kim Chaek Iron Works will have great
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significance in the industrial development and socialist construction of
our country.
We have rebuilt the furnaces and coke oven with our own designs
and efforts as in the case of the Hwanghae Iron Works, and also
produced all machinery, equipment and materials needed for their
reconstruction independently.
We have strenuously implemented the Party’s economic policy of
giving priority to the growth of heavy industry and waged a strong
ideological struggle against conservatism and mysticism about
techniques. In consequence, we were able to strengthen the material
and technical foundations of our industry to their present state and
build large-scale, up-to-date production equipment such as furnaces
independently within a short period of time.
These furnaces built by your devoted efforts will rapidly boost the
output of pig iron so as to supply more steel vitally needed by the
machine-building industry and in capital construction which is being
undertaken on a large scale in all parts of the country. This would be a
great contribution to further strengthening the material and technical
foundations of the national economy and promoting our socialist
construction.
While building furnaces, you have gained rich experience and
trained many technicians and skilled workers. This is a valuable asset for
the future development of our industry, the metallurgical industry in
particular, and confirm s our self-confidence in socialist construction.
Your success in the building of furnaces is tremendous, and you
have good reason to be proud of it. However, you should never rest on
your laurels. Self-complacence and indolence would bring about
stagnation and retrogression. There can only be continued innovations
and progress for communists. You, the heroic working class of Korea,
should consolidate past achievements and register new, greater success
by keeping up the revolutionary spirit as befitting communists.
Comrades,
Socialist construction in our country at present is in a great upsurge.
As socialist relations of production undividedly hold sway in towns
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and the country and the revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses grows
higher, the productive forces are developing at a rapid pace. Under the
leadership of our Party, all the people are rushing ahead in the spirit of
Chollima to exceed the targets of the First Five-Year Plan this year and
turn our country into a developed socialist industrial state within a few
more years.
Developing the metallurgical industry has decisive significance in
our socialist construction at the present time.
In order to develop the productive forces highly in conformity with
socialist society, we should place all sectors of the national economy
on the basis of modem technology. Without a radical increase in the
production of pig iron, steel and structural steel, we would not be able
to produce various machines and equipment in large quantities and,
accordingly, we would fail to carry out the current urgent task of
technical revolution satisfactorily.
Capital construction also requires iron. We should build many more
factories, mines and power stations, strengthen the material and
technical foundations of transport services and continue to carry out
large-scale construction in towns and the country.
The development of every sector of the national economy is
dependent on iron production.
Satisfying the ever-growing demands of the machine-building
industry and capital construction for iron is a vital question in
guaranteeing the rapid growth of the productive forces.
We should more than double the output of pig iron within one or
two years and raise it to the level of four million tons within four or
five years.
In carrying out this huge task the Kim Chaek Iron Works is
confronted with a very important responsibility.
The question which calls for an immediate solution at this iron
works is to normalize operations at the rebuilt furnaces and increase
their utilization in every possible way. It is essential to take technical
measures to avoid accidents in the operation of furnaces and to lower
the coefficient of the utilization of their volumes, and to introduce ball
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ores, raise the quality of roasted ore and widely apply different
advanced methods of work, in order to augment the output of pig iron
quickly.
Meanwhile, you should step up the building of converters now
under way so that all of them would be unfailingly put into operation
on schedule. In this way, you should not fail to exceed this year’s
production targets for pig iron and steel.
You are confronted with the task of carrying out large-scale
construction to expand and perfect the iron works.
We intend to develop the Kim Chaek Iron Works into a big,
combined metallurgical base, where work ranging from the production
of pig iron to steel-making and rolling would go on uninterruptedly.
We should see to it that the iron works produces more than
2,500,000 tons of pig iron in a year within the next four or five years
and expand its productive capacity so as to stabilize the production at
four million tons in the future.
To this end, you should carry out capital construction in a farsighted
and planned way. Your energy should not be spread on different
projects but should be concentrated on the construction of the most
important projects so as to put them into operation quickly. You should
make every possible effort to mechanize construction work, thereby
increasing its speed and quality, and to produce your own necessary
equipment.
In expanding and developing the Kim Chaek Iron Works, it is very
important to supply to it a sufficient amount of iron ore. Concurrently
with the expansion of the iron works, the Musan Mine should also be
expanded and its production processes mechanized in order to extract
more iron ore and raise its quality decisively.
The Kim Chaek Iron Works should thus be converted into the most
powerful base of metallurgy in our country.
This is a very important and honourable task that has been entrusted
in your hands. The greater your achievements in production and
construction, the faster socialist construction in our country would
progress.
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With a view to producing even one more ton of pig iron and steel
and building new production facilities more quickly and better, all the
employees of the Kim Chaek Iron Works should demonstrate
maximum initiative and zeal and steadily raise the level of their
techniques and skill. Workers and technicians should strengthen their
unity and cooperation and show collective wisdom and strength to the
maximum to bring about a continued upsurge and innovations in
production and construction.
I am convinced that all the workers, technicians and office workers
of the Kim Chaek Iron Works will successfully perform their
honourable duties, upholding the policy of our Party.
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HEALTH WORKERS SHOULD BE TRUE
SERVANTS OF THE PEOPLE
Talk with Health Workers
April 24, 1959
The most important task confronting the health workers is to
intensify the struggle to get rid of the remnants of bourgeois ideology.
The remaining bourgeois ideology obstructs and is detrimental to
the building of socialism.
As long as people retain these things in their mind, the building of
socialism and communism will not be successful. Therefore, it is
imperative to uproot bourgeois ideology.
The shortcomings you have criticized in your speeches are all due
to the bourgeois ideology. Contrary to the working-class ideology
which serves the people, the bourgeois ideology knows only money
but not the people.
We are striving to feed the people well, clothe them well and let
them live well. There are many good people who are imbued with the
ideas of the working class in the ranks of the health workers. However,
some of them have not yet discarded the obsolete ideological
viewpoint. The health workers must vigorously push ahead with the
ideological revolution.
Nowadays one can hardly see chickens in the regions north of Kim
Chaek County, North Hamgyong Province. This is because the
Ministry of Public Health issued a directive to destroy them, under the
pretext of promoting sanitation. This is not beneficial to the people; it
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infringes on their interests, and goes against the policy of the Party and
the Government. The people should be encouraged to raise many
chickens for meat.
As I heard in your speeches, there were many serious abuses. At
present, some doctors do not consider it a serious matter if any of their
patients die; they are cruel and do not care about the sufferings of the
people. Such people do not know for whom they work. The question is
their viewpoint on the masses.
In the old society doctors sought only money. They did not care
about the lives of the people. Since they did not regard the working
masses as human beings, they showed no concern about the death of
workers from illness. We must determinedly combat such an
old-fashioned mentality. This meeting must put forward as its most
important task, the work to uproot the remnants of the bourgeois
ideology from the mind of health workers. Everyone, from the
Minister of Public Health to doctors, should struggle to get rid of the
remnants of such an old ideology.
You should have a clear understanding of this struggle. We do not
oppose people who were well-off in the past; we oppose the bourgeois
ideas remaining in their mind and also those who deliberately hinder
socialist construction.
At present, there are neither private doctors nor privately-owned
hospitals in our country. A new health service system has been set up
for the people. Regardless of this system, the remnants of the obsolete
ideology persist in the mind of people.
In the public health sector the struggle against these things has not
yet been effective. Through an intensive ideological struggle, health
workers must wipe out the old ideology with which they worked for
the bourgeoisie and to get money in the past. They must serve the
workers, peasants and socialism in good faith. All health workers must
strive to change their obsolete ideas and become true popular health
workers who serve the working people and socialism.
Leading officials of the ministry should first get rid of all remnants
of the bourgeois ideology. As I said, critically, at the Presidium of the
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Party Central Committee some time ago, some people think that many
diseases break out because of the Chollima Movement. This is totally
wrong. The claim that the Chollima Movement is the cause of
inefficient health and sanitation work is the manifestation of bourgeois
ideas and opposition to this movement. How can this movement be the
cause of inefficient sanitation when we are accelerating socialist
construction in the spirit of Chollima in order to eat, dress and live
better? We must get ourselves out of the difficult situation as soon as
possible by building socialism more rapidly and to this end, we must
naturally ride on Chollima.
And some officials are said to be attributing inefficient rural
sanitation to agricultural cooperatives. This is an act that goes against
our Party’s policy on cooperativization.
As a result of cooperativization, agricultural production has
increased, the livelihood of the peasants has improved and the rural
working people are in much better health than before. There were
many cases of tuberculosis and stomach trouble among the Koreans in
the past when they were badly off. However, since the formation of
cooperatives, the income of peasants has increased and all rural
communities are provided with clinics, bathrooms and other sanitary
facilities. This has resulted in the further improvement of their sanitary
and hygienic conditions and in a considerable drop in the number of
diseases. Attributing the cause of inefficient sanitary and hygienic
work to agricultural cooperatives is a preposterous distortion of facts
and an absurd lie against the Party’s policy.
Some people have also been quoted as saying that women in rural
areas fall ill and are unable to become pregnant because they work on
cooperative farms. This is also an incorrect representation of the facts,
which is due to a bourgeois ideological viewpoint. With their
participation in work, women have become healthier; and with the
increase in production, they are better fed and have become better off.
In view of the large number of working women in rural areas, the Party
and the Government have taken measures to ease their burden by
setting up many nurseries, kindergartens, bathrooms, laundries, tailors’
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shops and similar centres. Some people are not properly following the
instructions of the Party, and instead speak ill of our system.
We must resolutely combat such old-fashioned ideas.
In order to accelerate socialist construction, the whole Party and all
the people must consider this as their most important task to uproot the
remnants of bourgeois ideas. It is especially important to eradicate the
bourgeois ideas from amongst the health workers.
Keeping pace with the Chollima Movement, all our health workers
must strive to prevent outbreak of diseases and treat any patients with
care. In this way, they will work devotedly to improve the people’s
health and protect their lives, and thus fully live up to the expectations
of the Party.
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CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE TO ALL
MEMBERS OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES,
THE WORKERS, TECHNICIANS AND OFFICE
EMPLOYEES OF THE OJIDON IRRIGATION
CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, AND
YOUTHS, STUDENTS AND SOLDIERS
WHO HAVE PARTICIPATED
IN THE OJIDON IRRIGATION PROJECT
April 30, 1959
The first stage of the Ojidon irrigation project has been successfully
completed in a short period through your devoted efforts. You have
striven together to carry out the gigantic project to transform nature,
upholding the decision of the September Plenary Meeting of the
Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on increasing
agricultural production quickly through the establishment of an
extensive irrigation system for dry fields, and through the continuous
expansion of the area of paddy fields under irrigation in our
countryside.
On the occasion of the opening of the Ojidon irrigation works
completed through the first stage, I would like, on behalf of the Central
Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Government of the
Republic, to greatly praise the brilliant feats of labour performed by
you, the workers, peasants, youths, students and soldiers, who have
successfully carried out the project, and extend warm congratulations
and gratitude to you.
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Tha nk s to your creative efforts, the Party’s policy of irrigation is
being put into effect with success.
The valuable fruit of your labour constitutes another excellent
contribution to converting our countryside into a rich region, where all
crops always thrive and where there are no crop failures by providing
vital water supplies to sterile land, over which our forefathers used to
lament, while waiting for rain to fall, an excellent contribution to the
cause for the prosperity of the country and the happiness of the people.
Your achievements are not only a great contribution to hastening
the technical transformation of agriculture and socialist construction as
a whole, but another strong blow at the US imperialists and the
traitorous Syngman Rhee clique. These achievements will greatly
inspire our brothers in the south who are valiantly struggling against
the enemies.
1 hope you will achieve brilliant victories and successes in the
struggle to promote the technical transformation of our agriculture by
further extending the irrigated area and intensifying afforestation and
water conservation with a higher degree of creative spirit and patriotic
enthusiasm, without resting on your laurels, and will be always ready
to actively carry out spring ploughing, sowing and other urgent farm
work.
237
ON MAINTAINING REVOLUTIONARY
UPSURGE IN SOCIALIST CONSTRUCTION
AND SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTING
THIS YEAR’S NATIONAL ECONOMIC PLAN
Speech at an Enlarged Meeting of the Presidium
of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea
May 5, 1959
This enlarged meeting of the Presidium of the Party Central
Committee is being attended by the provincial Party committee
chairmen, the managers and Party committee chairmen of major
factories and enterprises and many other leading workers. Today I
would like to speak about the need to maintain revolutionary upsurge
in socialist construction and successfully carry out the national
economic plan for this year as well as develop local industry.
1. ON MAINTAINING REVOLUTIONARY
UPSURGE IN SOCIALIST CONSTRUCTION
AND SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTING
THIS YEAR’S NATIONAL ECONOMIC PLAN
As you all know, the national economic plan we must carry out this
year is an ambitious and difficult one. Nevertheless, we should not try
238
to curtail this plan in order to carry it out. The Party Central Committee
wants no cuts in this year’s national economic plan. Today when our
country is in a period of revolutionary upswing, the curtailment of the
plan is tantamount to slowing revolutionary upsurge.
It is by no means an easy task to mobilize all the people to bring
about an upsurge in socialist construction and push ahead the
revolution. A revolutionary upsurge has taken place in our country
because our people are very eager to make changes and progress and
have a strong fighting spirit and our Party gives well-advised guidance
in the revolutionary struggle and construction work.
Robbed of their country and subjected to maltreatment by the
Japanese imperialists in the past, our people lived a sorrowful life.
Even before their country was lost, they had long been exploited and
oppressed under the feudal dynasties and suffered from foreign
invasion several times. As they suffered such oppression and
exploitation, the Korean people have a deep hatred and animosity
against the exploiting classes and foreign aggressors, as well as a great
desire for progress and reforms. In addition, they have a deep love for
their country, Party and Government. Our people, who lost their
country, had no government and were maltreated in the past, have now
become the masters of the country and have their own Party and
government for the first time after liberation. So, why shouldn’t they
have a great affection for their country, Party and Government?
Ever since its foundation, our Party has successfully carried out the
revolution and construction, relying on the masses in overcoming
difficulties. The Party and the people have always had confidence in
each other. The Party carried out democratic reforms, including the
agrarian reform, nationalization of industries and Law on Sex Equality,
and went through an arduous war hand in hand with the people,
achieving victory. During the Fatherland Liberation War our people
defended with their life our Party, the Government of the Republic and
the people’s democratic system which had provided them with a
genuinely new life.
As soon as the truce went into effect, our Party urged all the people
239
to embark on postwar reconstruction of the national economy and, in a
hearty response to the Party’s call, they became united in the struggle
to rebuild the ravaged economy. In the postwar period the Party and the
people worked hard enduring all hardships in strong unity, with the
result that they successfully fulfilled the Three-Year National
Economic Plan and laid the economic foundations of the country and
embarked upon the task of implementing the First Five-Year Plan.
The road our Party and people have taken since liberation is one lull
of revolutionary struggles. The democratic revolution, the building of a
new country, the three-year Fatherland Fiberation War, the postwar
reconstruction, the socialist revolution and the building of
socialism-these are all glorious revolutionary struggles waged by our
Party and people in firm unity.
Through these struggles our people have come to realize the
correctness of the Party’s policy more deeply and place a greater
confidence in our Party. Today the unity and cohesion of our Party and
people have become stronger than ever before and their force is so
powerful that it is capable to fully smash the moves by any aggressors
and reactionaries.
Thanks to the strong unity of the Party and the people forged in the
revolutionary struggle, and to the wise leadership of our Party, we can
today witness a revolutionary upsurge.
We should maintain this upsurge and never fail to implement the
enormous and tense national economic plan for the current year.
As a matter of fact, nothing serious would happen to us, even if this
year we do not draw up a more ambitious national economic plan than
last year, and do not strive to implement it. The only problem will be
that irrigation and mechanization in agriculture will be delayed a little
and the people’s living standard will not improve much. However, on
no account, can we permit this. We should continue to advance with a
high spirit and with more vigour. Only then can we fulfil the First
Five-Year Plan ahead of schedule and catch up with advanced
countries in the shortest time possible.
We should make strenuous efforts for one more year to keep the
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electric power industry ahead of other industries and further develop
the metallurgical industry, and should show our mettle to the world’s
people once again.
More machine factories should be built and large numbers of
machines and equipment produced to lay solid material foundations for
the technical revolution. A communist society is a society where the
productive forces are highly developed. Development of the
productive forces requires plenty of steel and machinery.
Agriculture should be developed in order to provide enough food
for the people.
At least 20 metres of cloth should be produced per person, so that
the people will be clothed properly.
We should attain, through one or two five-year plans, the results
achieved by other countries through three five-year plans, and catch up
with fraternal countries at the earliest date possible.
We have conditions and possibilities to do so. At present the masses
are seething and endeavouring to carry out much more work. Their
revolutionary spirit is really high.
In the last six months we expanded the irrigated area by over
300,000 hectares, and this is attributed entirely to the high spirit of the
masses.
In carrying out work on irrigation systems in the last six months
we did not simply dig canals on the plains. The projects to dig canals,
which literally passed through hills and across rivers, were very
difficult. But, because all people who expressed much revolutionary
enthusiasm were mobilized, we were able to expand the irrigated area
by over 300,000 hectares through our own efforts and techniques in a
very short time, in only six months. During this period more than
7,000 pumps were made and supplied. Such great nature-remaking
tasks are impossible without the high revolutionary spirit of the
masses.
What matters is how our leading personnel perform their work. The
revolutionary struggle entails great zeal and scrupulous organization of
work. Since there is the correct leadership of our Party and the high
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spirit of the masses, nothing is impossible if the leading officials
organize work well with much enthusiasm.
At present officials of the Ministry of Light Industry are making the
spinning and weaving equipment necessary to produce 200 million
metres of cloth on their own. They are doing this not because there are
mechanical engineers amongst them. No one of the leading workers at
this ministry graduated from the university of mechanical engineering.
They only have a firm determination and loyalty with which they
thoroughly implement the Party’s policy unconditionally.
All leading personnel should organize work carefully from now on,
even though it has been delayed a little, with a determination to work
hard to fulfil this year’s national economic plan by all means.
First of all, vigorous efforts should be made in the metallurgical
industry to fulfil its assignments in the national economic plan for this
year.
It is important for this sector to carry out capital construction on a
priority basis.
Understanding the main factors in their work and concentrating
efforts on them, is one of the revolutionary work methods which the
leading personnel should adopt. As an army wins in a battle only when
it chooses the correct direction of the main attack and concentrates its
forces on it, so in economic construction, too, all the work goes on
smoothly only when the main factors in their work are understood
correctly and the forces concentrated on them.
The Ministry of Metal Industry should examine construction
projects and undertake them in such a way as to finish one important
project after another by concentrating efforts on them. This is the only
way to solve the problems of manpower and materials as well. If
construction is not concentrated but spread, no one of its projects can
be completed.
While undertaking one important project after another in capital
construction, the metallurgical industry should devote its efforts to
steel production.
It is essential to produce pig iron, but what is more important is to
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produce steel in large quantities. Now the shortage of steel prevents
different sectors of the national economy from doing what is within
their power.
In order to produce plenty of steel, it is imperative to increase the
role of repair and maintenance shops in the metallurgical plants and
produce the necessary equipment and parts on their own.
At present, the Ministry of Metal Industry has 1,500 machine tools.
If it makes effective use of them, it will be able to manufacture
anything. We already advised the officials of this ministry not to rely
on others but to increase the operation of machine tools at the repair
and maintenance shops and make the necessary equipment and parts
for their own use. However, they only want the Ministry of Machine
Industry to produce equipment for them, while showing little interest
in their repair and maintenance shops. Just because they have made
some equipment and parts, they feel satisfied with this and do not try to
produce more, though they can do so.
Over the past years our Party put forward the slogan, “Iron and
machine are the king of industry!” and saw to it that other ministries
gave positive assistance to the metallurgical industry. This led the
officials in the Ministry of Metal Industry to get the bad habit of
making no effort to produce the necessary equipment and parts on their
own, only expecting other ministries to help them. They should get rid
of this bad habit.
The Ministry of Metal Industry is one of the most important
industrial ministries in our country. Therefore, it should set an example
to other ministries. The repair and maintenance shops should use
machines and equipment more effectively and build machines for
themselves to produce the necessary equipment and parts
satisfactorily.
The Ministry of Metal Industry should make rolling machines and
such things itself. The Ryongsong Machine Factory is not the only one
which is able to produce rolling machines. The Kangson Steel Plant
and the Hwanghae Iron Works are also fully capable of doing this.
Therefore, the ministry should make rolling machines on its own in
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order to produce steel in larger quantities.
Mines should also increase the output of mineral ores.
They should not rely exclusively on mining machinery factories for
production equipment but should strive to make such equipment
themselves. They should thus increase production equipment and
introduce mechanization widely. The Musan, Hasong and other large
mines, in particular, should launch vigorous efforts to produce and
improve equipment and mechanize operations themselves.
Management bureaus should be set up again under the Ministry of
Metal Industry.
At present one shortcoming in this ministry’s management system
is that the Minister’s failure in work makes it impossible to effectively
supervise and guide the factories and enterprises under this ministry.
By re-establishing the management bureaus under this ministry, it
would be able to give proper supervision and guidance to the factories
and enterprises and thus help all of them to run smoothly, even if the
Minister does not perform his work properly. The ministry should
establish the management bureaus at an early date in order to control
and guide the factories and enterprises well.
The managers, Party committee chairmen and chief engineers at
factories and enterprises should have a stronger sense of responsibility
and a bigger role.
The leading workers at large factories and enterprises are like
divisional or coips commanders of the army. They take charge of tens
of thousands of people-workers and their dependents, and manage
state property that is worth hundreds of millions of won. Therefore,
they should run their factories in a skilful way with a high sense of
responsibility. They should work in a responsible way with a firm
determination to devote all their efforts to the fulfilment of their
revolutionary tasks like Hero Ri Su Bok who unhesitatingly devoted
his life to carry out the battle order.
Leading economic officials should make full use of the collective
wisdom of the masses. Once the masses’ intellect is enlisted no
problem will remain unsolved. It is because the opinions of many
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people are put together that the correct ways and means for the solution
of problems can be sought at a meeting.
In order to enlist the masses’ wisdom properly, it is necessary to
make good preparations in advance. Tasks should first be given and
studied deeply and then put up for discussion in order to hear opinions
about them. Collective wisdom cannot be shown simply by people
sitting together for discussion. After the right ways and means are
determined through discussion, they should be actively put into
practice to bear good fruit in time. Needless to say, by intensively
enlisting the masses’ collective intellect, it does not mean that the
people should gather together to discuss every trifling matter.
There are many good people in the metallurgical industry. Some
time ago I had talks with workers during on-the-spot guidance at the
Kim Chaek Iron Works and I found that they were all hard-core Party
members who were ready to fight at all times for the implementation of
the Party’s decision. Besides this, the Hwanghae Iron Works and the
Kangson Steel Plant also have many hard-core members. If the leading
personnel work well amongst these people to bring their collective
wisdom into full play, nothing will be beyond their power.
Leading officials of the Ministry of Metal Industry should not
follow subjective and empiric practices in their offices, but go to lower
units and give a free hand to the collective wisdom of those who are
working in the production sector. Only then can everything make good
progress.
Next, the coal production plan should be fulfilled by all means.
The country’s coal situation is very critical now. If coal is not
produced as planned, cement and steel materials could not be produced
properly while the assignments in the machine-building and other
industries cannot be carried out. Therefore, the coal industry should by
all means fulfil this year’s production plan and produce a further
100,000 tons of highly calorific coal than planned.
This meeting is being attended by many managers and Party
committee chairmen in large coal mines. Upon returning to the mines,
you should convey the intentions of the Presidium of the Party Central
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Committee to hard-core Party members and colliers and encourage
them to vigorously struggle for an increase in coal production.
Recently we visited the Aoji Coal Mine and took an optimistic view
of coal production. To tell the truth, when we visited this mine in 1954,
it was so miserable that we were very upset. However, this time we
found that 80-90 per cent of the colliers were young people, who were
very cheerful and vigorous in their work and life, participating in
amateur art group activities. The ra nks of hard-core Party members
have also been strengthened in this mine.
The manager of the Aoji Coal Mine is a Labour Hero and carries
out his duties properly. I have been told that he tours all pits at dawn
every day to clearly acquaint himself with the condition of equipment
and factors that lead to accidents, and takes the necessary measures
without any delay. All cadres should work in this manner.
The chief engineer at this coal mine is also working in an admirable
way. He goes into the pit every day to work with the colliers and
continuously learns advanced techniques, studying in every spare
moment. In the meantime, as chief engineer, he helps the manager well
in his work.
Not only the Aoji but also other coal mines have a large number of
hard-core Party members. Therefore, if only these hard-core members
and other workers are encouraged to play an active role, all the mines
will be fully able to attain this year’s coal production targets.
In order to do this in a successful way, the coal mine workers should
eliminate any fear of technology and strive to produce the necessary
machines and parts by themselves. This is the only way to increase
equipment, ensure an adequate supply of necessary parts in time and
do away with the practice of disrupting production because of a short
supply of parts.
Other industrial sectors should help the coal mines, sending hauling
equipment and such things and supplying indispensable parts to them.
However, during our recent visit to the Aoji Coal Mine, we found that
the Ministry of Chemical Industry had not given proper help to the coal
mine even though the Aoji Chemical Factory had good machines
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available for making various parts. So, while giving on-the-spot
guidance to this chemical factory, I instructed it to supply the parts to
the Aoji Coal Mine.
Coal mines should take labour safety measures in a proper way and
establish strict discipline and order, as is done in the army. Establishing
such a strict discipline is the only way to avoid accidents and steadily
boost the coal output.
Coal mines should build up the ra nk s of hard-core Party members
and enhance their role.
Coal mines should be reinforced with manpower. It will be a good
thing for the State Planning Commission to increase the number of
employees in coal mines, which are short of labour forces. Besides
this, the organizations concerned should send many young people to
work in coal mines.
Next, cement should be produced as planned.
Some comrades suggest curtailing the cement production plan to a
certain extent. They should not suggest such things. Cement is
essential for building roads and carrying out irrigation work as well.
No construction work is possible without cement. We should not fail to
produce two million tons of cement this year as specified in the plan.
However, the Party Central Committee, the Cabinet and the State
Planning Commission at present give little attention to cement
production, on the ground that such production has now got on the
right track. Leading workers of provincial Party committees also find
themselves often on the sites of irrigation projects, but do not
frequently visit cement factories. Worse still, they entrust the task of
producing parts for metal equipment or irrigation facilities to the
cement factories which are even incapable of producing their own
parts in time. The Ministry of Chemical Industry in charge of cement
production, too, does not supervise and guide the cement factories
properly and neglects training of technicians in this sector. And it fails
to carry out efficient political work amongst the workers at cement
factories. As a result, cement production is not normal and the
assignment for the first quarter of this year has not been fulfilled.
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These shortcomings should be remedied as soon as possible and
efforts should be concentrated on cement production in order to
increase it.
Senior officials of provincial Party committees should firmly
resolve to be the foremost in the forthcoming struggle. They should go
and remain at the cement factories which have failed in their
assignments and encourage the Party members and other workers to
play an active role through positive political work. They should thus
make sure that the cement factories normalize production and fulfil the
production plans smoothly.
In order to normalize and increase cement production, crushers
should be supplied, if necessary, and more quarries should be set up
when the existing ones are not enough. Furthermore, new vertical kiln s
should be built, if need be.
If we make a vigorous effort by all means this year, we will be quite
able to produce two million tons of cement.
Moreover, light industry should concentrate its efforts on the
production of 200 million metres of cloth this year.
Only when we do this will it be possible for us to produce 250-300
million metres of fabrics next year.
It is true that a difficult struggle has to be waged in order to produce
200 million metres of textiles this year. Since the spinning equipment
which has been expected to arrive from a foreign country is still not
available, we should make 100,000 spindles ourselves in order to
produce textiles. It is not very easy to make 100,000 spindles in a short
period in our country, which has little experience in making spinning
and weaving machines. However, this year we should make 100,000
spindles ourselves so that we would be able to produce 200 million
metres of fabrics, come what may.
At present, officials of the Ministry of Light Industry are very
enthusiastic. They have a strong determination to produce, by all
means, 200 million metres of fabrics this year. This is a very good
thing. However, this difficult task cannot be successfully carried out by
them alone. Therefore, the whole Party should be mobilized to help the
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Ministry of Light Industry, and the other ministries should give their
full assistance.
It is particularly important for the provincial Party committees to
give efficient help to this ministry. The Party committees of
Pyongyang and North Phyongan, South Hamgyong and Jagang
Provinces should extend positive assistance to the spinning and textile
mills.
Furthermore, great efforts should be made to ease the transport
problem.
In order to do this, it is imperative to radically increase the
efficiency of the existing means of transport. At the same time,
consideration should be given to the measure to ensure small-scale
transport by electric car, instead of locomotives, in factory compounds.
Since electric cars are now being made in our country, there is no need
to carry even a small amount of cargo by locomotives in factory
compounds. If electric cars are used in factory compounds, those
locomotives and freight cars which have been used there, can be
transferred to other places where the transport problem is acute, and
can thus be used more effectively.
Next, capital construction should be intensified.
If the capital construction plan for this year is to be fulfilled
successfully, the shortage of building materials should be decidedly
solved.
The iron problem should be solved first. Iron materials are at
present in shortest supply in construction.
The solution to this problem requires an active campaign to collect
scrap iron. Collecting large quantities of scrap iron is an important
method to increase the output of iron materials without having to build
new blast furnaces. If only we have scrap iron, we will be able to boost
the production of iron materials as much as we want. Scrap iron may be
sent to the iron works for the production of steel or to be made into iron
rods in local areas after the installation of equipment to melt scrap iron.
Blast furnaces are difficult to build but equipment such as that used for
melting scrap iron can be produced anywhere-at large factories and
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even small plants-if people decide to do it.
Scrap iron is found everywhere in large quantities. It may be found
under water or scattered near railways.
A campaign should be launched to collect 100,000 tons of scrap
iron this year above the planned figure. This amount of scrap iron will
greatly help us to solve the problem of iron materials arising in capital
construction and help us build much more. Ministers and provincial
people’s committee chairmen should firmly take over the work of
collecting scrap iron and intensify it further.
We must fully economize in the use of iron in capital
construction.
Good designing in capital construction will make it possible to
economize a lot in the use of iron. The designing agencies and other
establishments concerned should re-examine the designs of capital
construction projects and seek more ways how to economize the use of
iron materials.
Iron rods should be extended before they are used. This may seem
insignificant, but it is by any means not so. The use of extended rods
can help us save over 20 per cent of the iron rods used without being
extended. If we can save around 20 per cent of the rods, we will be able
to save 200 tons of iron rods in case 1,000 tons are used or 2,000 tons
in the case of 10,000 tons. This is tantamount to producing that amount
of iron rod.
We instructed people in the building industry on several occasions
that an extending machine should be made and installed at each
construction site to extend iron rods for use. However, they have not
carried out the task we entrusted to them properly. As the state has
supplied them with the required reinforcement rods, they do not give
much thought to the matter of extending such rods for better use. Party
workers also fail to carry out an uncompromising struggle against such
a practice.
As a matter of fact, it is not a difficult task to make and install an
extending machine at each construction site. Since the building
industry has large machine factories, it can produce as many extending
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machines as it wants and install them at every construction site only if
its officials resolve to do this.
Strict discipline should be established so that iron rods will, on all
accounts, be extended wherever they are being used. Whoever violates
this rule should be made to face the consequences and be strongly
criticized.
Substitute materials for iron rods should be used extensively in
house construction. We can build as many houses as we need even
with blocks which are made with substitute materials instead of iron
rods. Therefore, we should this year build a small number of
multi-storey houses which require lots of iron rods and, instead, should
construct many houses using substitute materials. It will be a good
thing to build such houses in county seats and on the outskirts of
Pyongyang and provincial seats as well. In future we should build
houses with such blocks on a large scale. This will make it possible to
economize widely in the use of iron materials and timber and solve
their shortages considerably. At the same time, a struggle should also
be intensified to use cement in an economical way.
Timber should be saved. Owing to the nation’s acute timber
problem, the capital construction sector cannot receive the established
amount of timber as planned. Therefore, it should fully economize in
the use of timber and organize work in a scrupulous way to build more
with less timber.
Furthermore, power stations should be constructed on a large scale.
At present the power situation in the country is very difficult. Only
by building many power stations and intensifying efforts to economize
in the use of electricity, can we solve the electricity shortage and
successfully fulfil the First Five-Year Plan as well.
A major campaign for the construction of power stations should be
launched from this autumn till the end of next year. Needless to say,
this necessitates the readjustment of irrigation works to a certain extent
since materials, funds and manpower are not sufficient. As the
irrigated area has been greatly expanded through large-scale irrigation
projects, if we readjust irrigation works for about two years, this will
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hardly affect agricultural production. Therefore during this period, we
should carry out only major irrigation projects that have already been
started and forest and water conservation work in North and South
Hamgyong Provinces on a small scale, and should concentrate all our
forces on the construction of power stations. Even when irrigation,
afforestation and water conservation projects are undertaken, those
projects connected with the building of power stations should be
started as early as possible. Thus the electricity problem would be
solved.
Now, the machine-building industry should be further developed.
Since the Party Central Committee sent a letter to all members last
year, great success has been achieved in the machine-building
industry. In a hearty response to the Party’s call “Thi nk boldly and act
boldly!” the workers in this sector, while overcoming any fear of
technology, made tractors, trucks, bulldozers, excavators and various
other new machines and equipment, and produced a large number of
big pumping machines in a short time and thus contributed greatly to
expanding the area under irrigation. They have also increased the
utilization of equipment in a remarkable way as against the past period
and brought about great changes in production of machines and
equipment by taking advantage of many creative ideas. The workers of
the Ryongsong Machine Factory in particular devised a single-purpose
general machine, using small cutting machine tools, and admirably
produced large machines and equipment, including thin plate rolling
equipment.
Many designers have also been trained in the machine-building
industry. They are now designing machines and equipment with
confidence and courage.
I am very satisfied with the great success achieved so far in the
machine-building industry and would like to extend my thanks to all
Party members and working people in this sector.
Machinery is the king of industry. Machinery is indispensable to
the rapid development of industry and all other domains of the national
economy, and to the successful accomplishment of the technical
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revolution. The technical revolution is immediately the mechanical
revolution. So the machine-building industry should be definitely kept
ahead of all other spheres of the national economy and its foundations
should be strengthened further.
The production of machine tools should be sharply increased before
anything else.
At present machine tools are in demand everywhere. They are
essential to further consolidate the foundations of the
machine-building industry and to produce more trucks, tractors and
other different machines and equipment. They are also necessary to
actively introduce the mechanization of production processes in all
spheres of the national economy, to increase the number of machines
and equipment and to repair them in time.
However, the demand of the national economy for machine tools
cannot be met through their importation. Importation of machine tools
requires a large amount of foreign currency and, moreover, takes much
time. Once we imported a turning lathe, paying much foreign currency
and it took us four years to get the machine. If we import ten turning
lathes in this way, it will take us 40 years. Therefore if we buy machine
tools from other countries, we can neither solve their shortage nor
succeed in carrying out socialist construction in our country. It is also
difficult to satisfy the growing demand of the national economy for
machines by relying only on the Huichon and Kusong Machine-Tool
Factories. Many machines will be made at these two factories next
year, but this is not enough to meet demand.
For a prompt solution to the problem of machine tools, a campaign
to use each machine to make more machines should be launched in all
sectors and at all factories which have machine tools.
Some time ago we went to inspect the Juul Flax Mill, and saw
workers there striving to attain an ambitious goal of producing scores of
cutting machines this year by operating five old ones. They had already
made several machines on their own. This deserves much praise.
I would like to call upon the whole Party and the workers in the
machine-building industry to dynamically carry out a machine-making
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campaign in all sectors of the national economy from now till next
May Day, and thus produce over 13,000 machine tools over and above
the state production plan.
All the factories and enterprises that have machine tools should
ensure that during this period all their machines are used to produce
more than one machine, in addition to the state plan target. The
campaign to produce more machines should not be confined only to
ordinary machine tools such as lathes; we should also boldly start to
produce large and special machine tools. For this purpose, officials in
the machine-building industry should get rid of the old habit of trying
to import large and special machine tools, never thinking of producing
them themselves.
We should make those special machine tools which have been
imported on our own. If only officials try, they would be fully capable
of making them. Some time ago when I went to the Ryongsong
Machine Factory, I instructed the workers to manufacture an 8-metre
turning lathe and they said they would do it by August 15. That is a
wonderful thing.
While carrying out state assignments, the Huichon Machine-Tool
Factory should set up a machine factory just the same as itself by next
May Day. The factories under the First Bureau should also produce
many large and special machine tools by themselves and thus steadily
increase their production capacities.
If we are to urge big machine factories to make a large number of
large and special machine tools, we should ease the burden imposed on
them. We should do so by producing machines everywhere through a
vigorous campaign to produce more with each machine tool and by
enlarging the maintenance shops of other factories.
If we produce more than 13,000 machine tools over the state plan in
a year through such a campaign, we will be able to reinforce the
maintenance shops at all factories and equip ship and various other
repair factories properly. We will also be able to setup a farm-machine
repair plant in each rural county in order to mend tractors, other farm
machines and oxcarts in a short time.
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The campaign to produce more with each machine is a very
interesting one. It should be conducted dynamically in all spheres of
the national economy so that the number of machine tools in our
country will be increased to 30,000 next year. Then the country’s
economic might will increase and our revolution will advance more
rapidly.
Along with machine tools, a large number of tractors and trucks
should also be produced.
Unless large numbers of tractors are produced, we can neither carry
out the rural technical revolution successfully nor boost agricultural
production quickly. Close planting of crops requires us to plough fields
deeper and to supply larger quantities of chemical fertilizer and
barnyard manure than before. It is impossible, however, to plough
fields deeper with cattle. Besides this, oxcarts are not suitable to
transport such large quantities of chemical fertilizer and barnyard
manure and to carry bumper crops in time in the autumn. Therefore,
the machine-building industry should not fail to fulfil the tractor and
truck production plans for this year. The production of tractors and
trucks should be increased decidedly next year.
In order to do this, all machine factories should give positive
assistance to the tractor and motor works. The former should make
special machine tools and measuring apparatus that are needed by the
tractor and motor works. The machine factories under the First Bureau
in particular should produce and supply a large number of special
machine tools. At the same time, the tractor and motor works, too,
should not just wait for help from machine factories but should strive
to make the necessary machines and equipment themselves.
The machine-building industry should build many new machines
and equipment suited to the conditions in our country.
This sector is making great efforts to reshape foreign machines to
suit our actual conditions, but new machines are few. Of course, it is
necessary to reshape foreign-made machines to adapt them to our
actual conditions. But an important thing is to build a large number of
new machines which suit our conditions.
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Our country has many technicians and workers engaged in the
machine-building industry. So the role of mechanical research
institutes and mechanics should be enhanced and the creative
cooperation between technicians and workers should be strengthened
so that new machines suited to our conditions will be invented in larger
numbers.
2. ON DEVELOPING LOCAL INDUSTRY
In order to satisfy the demand of the people for consumer goods,
light industry should develop large centrally-controlled industries and
small and medium local industries simultaneously. Only when this is
done on a large scale can we mass-produce consumer goods directly in
local places where there is abundant raw material to supply them to the
people.
The development of local industry makes it possible to solve the
problem of technicians as well.
In our country there are many localities which have a long tradition
in the production of consumer goods. Some areas have the tradition of
good ceramics and others the tradition of fine handicrafts. In these
areas there are many technicians and skilled workers in the respective
spheres. They can all be given a role in production, if small and
medium factories are built in these areas.
If, for instance, a small or medium plant to make handicrafts is set
up in Kaesong which has been famous for such objects since olden
times, the craftsmen in that region can be actively enlisted to work in
production. Then the old local traditions in the production of consumer
goods will be carried forward in a more admirable way.
The development of local industry is also beneficial for idle family
members. In county seats there are many wives of factory and office
workers who waste time at their homes. If small and medium local
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industry plants are built, they will all be encouraged to participate in
production activities. Participation of housewives in such activities will
be of benefit not only to the state but will also increase the income of
their families and improve their level of political consciousness quickly.
If local industry is developed, large quantities of goods can be
produced at a low cost. Provided the goods now being made at local
factories are produced at large centrally-controlled factories after they
are built, a huge capital construction investment would be necessary
and large numbers of technicians must be trained for them. And houses
should also be built for the workers. Therefore, it takes a long time
before goods can be produced after the construction work on large
centrally-controlled factories starts. Moreover, if these factories alone
are built, it will be difficult to provide them with enough raw and other
materials, even after production starts.
In view of the building of communism, the development of local
industry is also important. It is also not wrong in a communist society
to produce consumer goods directly in places where local raw
materials are available to be supplied to the inhabitants concerned.
The correctness of our Party’s policy on simultaneously developing
the centrally-controlled large industries and the small and medium
local industries has been shown with facts. After the June 1958 Plenary
Meeting of the Party Central Committee we developed local industry
on a large scale, with the result that goods are made at local plants in
large quantities at present This year’s output value of local industry
will account for 27.5 per cent of our country’s total industrial output
value. Since the local industry plants produce large quantities of goods,
both the producers and consumers are satisfied and great profits are
made by the state as well.
We should continue to thoroughly implement the Parly’s policy on
the simultaneous development of large centrally-controlled industries
and small and medium local industries, and thus advance local industry
still further.
Today local industry is confronted with the important task of
improving and reinforcing the existing local factories.
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After the June Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee
local factories sprang up like mushrooms. Now it is high time to
readjust and reinforce those existing factories.
The material and technical foundations of local plants should be
strengthened. Production processes should be actively mechanized,
while solid raw material bases should be created and new factory
buildings constructed, as well.
Construction of single-storey factory buildings would be enough.
So these will not be difficult to build; we can easily build them with
local materials available, even if there is neither steel nor cement. They
should be constructed by the supporters’ organizations and by the
factories themselves.
Management personnel at local factories should also be selected
from amongst the best people and their qualifications raised
constantly. The organizations concerned should take positive steps to
improve their abilities.
Small local industry plants should be amalgamated. Excessive
scattering of local factories is not desirable. Food and other factories in
the counties should be merged, where necessary. But all the small
plants should not be automatically merged. Those which have to be
developed independently, should be left as they are, even though they
are small.
It is important to increase the sense of responsibility of the
supporters’ organizations in readjusting and reinforcing local factories.
To help these factories does not require much money and time, and is
not a very difficult task. The question is how high the cadres’ sense of
responsibility is. If they are prepared to help local factories, they will
be fully able to do it. When they are given an assignment to help these
factories, they should assist them properly. The officials concerned
should encourage the supporters’ organizations to help local factories
in a responsible manner.
Educational work should be intensified amongst local industrial
workers.
A large number of entrepreneurs, traders and craftsmen who had
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their businesses damaged due to the war are now working at local
factories and producers’ cooperatives. It is a very good thing that they
are supporting the socialist revolution and are working at such
cooperatives and factories. Needless to say, there may be those amongst
them who make complaints, showing no enthusiasm in socialist
construction, because they cannot discard old ideas. But it would not be
right to keep them away or try to expel them from factories and
cooperatives. If they are expelled, where could they go? They all should
be educated to be turned into revolutionary workers.
In the field of local industry former entrepreneurs, traders and
craftsmen should be generously treated and re-educated. Local Party
organizations, the county Party organizations in particular, should give
close attention to their education. Thus they should be transformed into
socialist builders and revolutionary workers.
Guidance in local factories should also be intensified.
These factories should be transferred to the counties so that they
will be guided directly by the county Party and people’s committees.
This will make it possible to give them more adequate guidance.
In order to give proper guidance to local factories, it is necessary to
markedly improve the qualifications of county people’s committee
officials. At present they have low qualifications and some of them are
not enthusiastic in their work. So those who have poor qualifications
should be given further training and those who lack enthusiasm should
be taught to work in real earnest.
Leading officials of central organizations should show deep
concern for the development of local industry. They should
individually take charge of local factories in Pyongyang and help them
in a responsible manner. On Sundays they should go to the factories
under their charge, where they should conduct ideological work
amongst workers, help to raise their technical level and teach them
methods of enterprise management.
In the field of local industry a campaign to create model factories
should be launched and an emulation drive between provinces should
be widely organized.
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It is not right to hastily place the producers’ cooperatives under the
state-run local industry. The conversion of cooperative ownership into
ownership by all the people necessitates a stage of ideological
transformation. The producers’ cooperatives whose conditions are
good should be placed under the state-run local industry; otherwise
they should be left intact. Socialist production is also carried out at the
producers’ cooperatives. So it is not wrong to keep them intact.
Local factories should be supplied with coal. If the state is unable to
supply them with enough coal, they should be authorized to develop
coal mines themselves. It goes without saying that these factories
should not be given a free hand in coal mining. The provincial people’s
committees should supervise and guide this work properly.
In conclusion, I would like to make a few remarks on the tasks
confronting the different branches of local industry.
The paper industry should be developed to increase the output of
paper quickly.
Without boosting paper production, success cannot be expected in
the cultural revolution. Paper plays a very important part in the cultural
revolution. Therefore, the paper industry should be developed to
produce paper in greater quantities.
It is important to produce large quantities of pasteboard. At present
cartons and such things are rarely supplied to rural areas, and as a result
fruits and other farm products are packed carelessly in straw-bags.
That is why the production of pasteboard should be increased to
completely solve the problem of packing paper. As pasteboard is made
from rice straw, its production can be increased as much as we want.
Kraft paper should also be produced. We should not wait only for a
kraft paper mill to be brought from another country in future but should
build such a mill ourselves to produce kraft paper. It is true that when
local factories start producing kraft paper, its quality may be poor at
first, but this does not matter.
Floor paper, writing paper, toilet paper, paper to cover cold-frames
for rice seedlings, and various other kinds of paper should be produced
in large quantities.
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For the increased production of paper, many small and medium
paper mills should be built. One or two paper mills similar to the
Hoeryong Paper Mill should be constructed in each province. While
giving on-the-spot guidance at this mill, I found that most of its
production equipment, except paper machines, was made of wood. It
will be a good thing for the Ministry of Light Industry to make good
blueprints for paper mills to be built with wood before they are sent
down.
Production of ceramics should also be augmented. Our country is
very rich in raw materials that are good for ceramics and so a few
pottery factories should be built in each province in order to produce
many bowls, jars, pots, vases as well as building-ware.
Various kinds of high-quality handicrafts should be manufactured
in large numbers.
They are at present making only hats of shavings which are easy to
make and even these hats could not be used for a long time because of
their low quality. Besides quality hats of this kind, they should produce
many good-quality hats, using wheat and barley straw, rinds of
sorghum stems and such things. In Jagang Province we saw hats that
were made of rinds of sorghum stems, and they were very good.
Grass mats should also be made well. As it is not cold in our
country, if grass mats are properly made from sedge and such things,
they would be good for use. There is no need to try spreading only
thick carpets, as in cold countries. When we visited a hot country, we
discovered that the people there also spread thin grass mats and not
thick carpets. This was a very admirable thing. Therefore, the local
industry should make many good-quality grass mats from sedge and
such things.
Large numbers of benches for parks should also be made from
willows or roots of pine trees. Besides this, stone should be processed
into various handicrafts.
For the mass-production of various handicrafts of a good quality,
the provincial people’s and Party committees should organize work
scrupulously. All idle skilled workers in localities should be sought
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and urged to take an active part in production, producers encouraged
greatly to propose original things and inventions, and production plans
formulated with care.
The food industry should be extensively developed as well.
Lately we raised the wages of the workers, technicians and office
employees by an average of 40 per cent. At present their wages are not
low. So, if the food industry is developed to produce large quantities of
processed foodstuffs, the living standard and diet of the working
people can be improved quickly. Furthermore, the burden of
housewives can be eased and money circulation increased.
Vegetables, edible herbs and fruit should be processed properly.
Vegetables or edible herbs, if processed correctly, will be turned into
good finished foodstuffs, and fruit could be dried or processed into jam
and other items.
Since eggs and milk will be produced in large quantities in future,
measures should be taken to process them. Milk, in particular, should
be processed into butter and various other goods.
Duck and rabbit meat should also be processed properly. At present
they try to simply boil duck meat in water to sell it, but they should not
continue to do so. Duck meat should be either smoked or processed in
many ways.
Fish should also be processed properly. The best thing is to supply
fish raw but large quantities of fish should also be processed. You
should not process only fish caught from the sea, but caips, crucian
carps and other fresh-water fish as well.
The production of cooking oil should be increased. You should not
rely only on one or two large oil plants. Oil plants should be set up
everywhere to produce plenty of oil from sesame, soy bean, wild
sesame and peanuts.
Cookies and other sweets should be produced in large quantities.
Their quality is not very good at present; it should be radically
improved.
The production of soft drinks should also be increased sharply.
At present not enough soft drinks are produced to provide beer,
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aerated cider-like drink, and other refreshments satisfactorily to the
working people. Not enough soft drinks are sold even on Mt. Taesong
and Hill Moran where many working people go for pleasure while
cider-like and other sweet cold drinks, mineral water and such drinks
are rarely sold on trains.
Soft drinks can be easily produced if only the officials try a little
harder. Why can’t soft drinks be sold to the people as much as they
want? Beer, cider-like and other sweet cold drink and mineral water
should also be produced in large quantities and sold to the people.
For the rapid increase of foodstuff production, it is necessary to
develop the food industry through a campaign involving all the people.
Food factories should be built everywhere to produce various
processed foodstuffs. At the same time, food processing methods
should be widely introduced amongst the working people so that they
will make and eat plenty of tasty and durable processed foodstuffs
themselves.
Agricultural cooperatives should also produce processed
foodstuffs. I was told that in a certain country, wine is produced at
agricultural cooperatives and its quality is so good that it is sold even to
foreign countries. Agricultural cooperatives should make good-quality
processed foodstuffs in large quantities.
At the current meeting we are going to adopt a good decision. A
decision, no matter how good it may be, will be of no use unless it is
implemented. All officials should thoroughly implement the decision
to be adopted at this meeting by conducting scrupulous ideological and
organizational work.
263
ON OPPOSING DOGMATISM
AND ESTABLISHING JUCHE
IN PARTY POLITICAL WORK
IN THE PEOPLE’S ARMY
Talk with Military and Political Workers
at the Corps or Higher Levels
of the Korean People’s Army
May 16, 1959
Today I am going to talk to you on a few problems arising in the
effort to improve Party political work in the People’s Army.
All the things that have happened in the People’s Army since the
March 1958 Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee have
shown once more that there had been serious shortcomings in the work
of the General Political Bureau. Had these main shortcomings in Party
political work of the People’s Army not been criticized in time at the
plenary meeting, the consequences would have been grave.
After the war the Party Central Committee entrusted the General
Political Bureau with all Party political work of the People’s Army.
But Choe Jong Hak, the former director of this bureau, was not faithful
to Party line and worked as he pleased. Therefore, our Party’s line
could not be carried out correctly in the People’s Army.
Choe Jong Hak asked me on many occasions to address the army.
But he did this for the sake of formality and, in fact, did not even
inform the soldiers about what I had already said in my addresses to the
army units. Besides, he did not follow the Party’s instruction on
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eliminating dogmatism and establishing Juche.
The major shortcoming in the work of the General Political Bureau
in the past is that it did not struggle to establish Juche thoroughly in the
People’s Army.
Dogmatism is very harmful to Party work and the revolutionary
struggle. As the counter-revolutionary incident in a certain country a
few years ago shows, if a party accepts dogmatism and blindly follows
the policy of another country, it will disrupt the revolution and
construction. Ho Ka I, Pak Chang Ok and their ilk, who once held
leading posts in our Party, abandoned Juche to give way to dogmatism.
Our Party discovered this during the war and struggled to oppose
dogmatism and strengthen the Party. Especially in the postwar period
the Party made it the foremost task to oppose dogmatism and
flunkeyism and establish Juche.
In 1955 when the Party was relentlessly combatting bureaucracy
and dogmatism, Choe Jong Hak did not organize the struggle as he
should have done in the army. Worse still, he tried to adopt a foreign
system of Party political work in the People’s Army.
Our country differs from other countries as far as both the
revolutionary task and actual situation are concerned. We must liberate
the southern half, reunify the country and carry out the democratic and
socialist revolutions throughout the country. For this reason, we must
not copy foreign methods of revolution and construction.
The most important thing in the revolution is to establish Juche
thoroughly, adhering to the principles of Marxism-Leninism. To
establish Juche is the duty of all communists. It would be impossible to
carry out the revolution properly, if one blindly copies foreign methods
without Juche.
Our Juche means the Korean revolution. We will be unable to solve
any problems correctly, if we copy another country’s policy as it is and
impose it upon the people, without knowing the aims of the Korean
revolution, the stages of its development and our Party’s line and
policy.
The Party spirit of our officials and Party members finds expression
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in their loyalty to the Korean revolution. Success in the Korean
revolution will contribute to the success in the international revolution;
only when we are loyal to the Korean revolution can we be genuine
internationalist fighters.
Establishing Juche does not exclude the need to learn from the
experience gained in other countries. We should study their
experience, but in such a way as to promote the Korean revolution. It is
not advisable to copy “A” simply because others write down “A” or
try to eat food with a fork instead of chopsticks simply because others
do it.
We should learn from foreign experience in order to benefit from it
in the Korean revolution. We must not just copy it automatically but
adapt it to the specific conditions in our country. The study of the
history of foreign parties must also be handled to suit the Korean
situation.
The general principles of socialist revolution and socialist
construction are the same and unchangeable. To violate them would
lead to revisionism. However, the way how to do away with capitalism
and build socialism varies from one country to another according to the
actual situation.
For example, let us take the question of socialist agricultural
cooperativization. The Soviet Union developed the engineering
industry through industrialization and then carried out agricultural
cooperativization. However, in view of our specific realities, we
carried out the cooperativization of the rural economy prior to
technical transformation. Lenin said that even a simple merger of the
peasants’ lands and farm implements into a communal economy could
bring about economic improvements which the small individual
peasant economy could not.
In the early stage of the agricultural cooperativization in our
country, some people wavered. At that time, when we said that we
would complete the agricultural cooperativization during the First
Five-Year Plan, some foreigners also expressed fear that we were
captivated by subjectivism. But we gave correct guidance to the
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agricultural cooperative movement in keeping with our actual
conditions, with the result that we successfully completed
cooperativization rather smoothly in all parts of the country by August
last year. If we had failed to adhere to Juche in this task, it would have
been impossible for us to win such a victory.
Our Party has eliminated dogmatism and formalism through the
struggle to establish Juche during the last few years. Nevertheless, the
People’s Army still retains dogmatism and the outdated framework to
a considerable extent. Dogmatism inevitably coexists with flunkeyism
and bureaucracy as an outdated way of work.
The People’s Army must vigorously struggle to eliminate
dogmatism and the old pattern of work and establish Juche. It should
revise internal service regulations to suit our specific conditions, and
refrain from the dogmatic introduction of a foreign one-man
management system. At one time in the past, Party political work in the
People’s Army and military affairs were handled exclusively by
political workers and military workers respectively, in accordance with
a foreign practice. At present, the Party committee is active in the
army, so military commanders participate in Party work. But this was
not the case in the past and the General Political Bureau and the
political organizations in the People’s Army worked in an arbitrary
manner.
Formerly, the General Political Bureau also neglected efforts to
correctly implement the Party’s policy on intensifying ideological
education, in keeping with the change in the situation and the
requirements of the developing revolution.
In the postwar years our Party set forth the task of intensifying the
socialist revolution on a full scale in the northern half of Korea and, in
line with this, strengthened class and communist education for its
members and the rest of the working people. Inspiring them with
communist ideology was very essential in connection with the
full-scale building of socialism.
But the General Political Bureau was very passive in executing the
Party’s policy of intensifying class and communist education. Choe
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Jong Hak even attempted to adopt the educational system of a foreign
army as it was, in the People’s Army, without making any report to the
Party. Worse still, he disregarded the revolutionary traditions of our
Party.
We should show all the soldiers and working people how the
Korean communists and people fought in the past and bring the
revolutionary traditions of our Party to the fore.
Giving prominence to the revolutionary traditions and carrying
them forward is by no means a question of who has a share in them or
not. What is important is to realize how the Korean communists and
people fought for the revolution in the past and properly educate the
younger generation in these traditions.
Some people express a doubt about whether those who returned
from abroad would agree to put stress on the revolutionary traditions of
the anti-Japanese armed struggle. This is a typical expression of
fame-seeking selfishness by those who disregard the cause of
communism. It is wrong to ignore the fine revolutionary traditions of
one’s own people, captivated by narrow-minded localism and
nepotism. How could it be claimed that upholding and inheriting the
revolutionary traditions can only be beneficial to the veterans of the
revolutionary struggle? Our revolutionary traditions are not a heritage
of any individuals but a heritage of all the Korean people.
We regret that our ancestors failed to carry out a bourgeois
revolution. But the Korean communists have fine traditions of a
15-year-long glorious anti-Japanese armed struggle. And why should
our Party not carry them forward? It is the honour and the pride of the
whole Korean population that our country has such excellent
revolutionary traditions. Some people criticize our Party’s
revolutionary traditions for ulterior motives.
Our Party’s Rules explicitly stipulate that the revolutionary
traditions of the anti-Japanese armed struggle should be inherited.
Nevertheless, the General Political Bureau neglected the duty of
educating the soldiers in the revolutionary traditions of our Party.
Their failure to follow the Party’s policy on political work resulted
268
in the building of a castle in the air, with regard to Party political work
in the People’s Army in the past. They merely shouted the slogans,
“Long live the Workers’ Party of Korea!” and “Long live
internationalism!” The Party political work was lacking any specific
content and purpose. Taking advantage of this, the anti-Party
factionalists influenced a large number of people.
That is a summary of the shortcomings revealed in Party political
work in the People’s Army in the past. We must rectify these
shortcomings as soon as possible and make a fresh start.
What, then, is the orientation of future ideological education in the
People’s Army?
First, you must eliminate the remnants of flunkeyism and
dogmatism and establish Juche thoroughly.
What is important to do this is to make a deep study of the line of
our Party building and its policies in each different period.
Following the Third Enlarged Executive Committee Meeting of the
Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of North
Korea, our Party embarked on the task of implementing its
organizational line correctly and brought about great changes in the
Party building and work. So it is necessary to deeply study the
document of this meeting. At the same time, you should study the
Ten-Point Programme of the Association for the Restoration of the
Fatherland, the Twenty-Point Platform, and other policies the Party has
adopted so far, in each period. Especially you should study profoundly
and objectively the documents of the Third Party Congress and the
December 1957 Enlarged Plenary Meeting and the speech delivered to
Party information and motivation workers on December 28, 1955. It is
also advisable to study the 1957 Declaration of the Moscow
Conference of Representatives of Communist and Workers’ Parties,
which deals in detail with the problem of opposing dogmatism and
revisionism.
The need to establish Juche and the validity of our Party’s policy
must be fully explained to the soldiers. Establishing Juche does not
conflict, in any way, with the principles of Marxism-Leninism nor
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does it hamper internationalist solidarity. On the contrary, carrying out
the Korean revolution with success by establishing Juche means that
we are loyal to the principles of Marxism-Leninism and carry out the
internationalist duty.
Secondly, you must provide effective education by making
comparisons between the situation in the north and the south of our
country.
Such education will give the armymen a clear understanding of the
advantages of our socialist system and the corruptness and the
reactionary nature of Syngman Rhee’s ruling system in south Korea.
This education must deal with tangible facts from both parts of the
Republic. You should present, in contrast, the formation of our
Supreme People’s Assembly and the puppet National Assembly of
Syngman Rhee in south Korea, and show that the former consists of
true representatives of workers, peasants and other working people,
whereas the latter is made up of landlords, capitalists, pro-Japanese
and pro-American elements, traitors and political swindlers. And our
Party’s people-oriented policy and the Syngman Rhee clique’s
infamous policy, as well as the economic systems and economic
policies of both sides can be topics of comparison. The wages, income
and other living conditions of workers, peasants and the rest of people
in the north and the south should also be compared for educational
purposes. Soldiers should thus clearly understand that in the northern
half of Korea all the people are well-off whereas in south Korea only
the rich are getting richer while the poor become poorer.
It would also be a good idea to compare parties and the formation of
their cadres’ corps. Ours is a party which champions the interests of
workers, peasants and the rest of the working people, and whose cadres
are all revolutionaries. In contrast, the Liberal Party of Syngman Rhee
is a party that protects the interests of landlords and capitalists, a group
of political stooges. Besides this, the missions of the People’s Army
and the south Korean “National Defence Army”, the formation of their
officers’ coips and the relationship between officers and men should
also be compared.
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There are many other things, including the educational system, that
can be the subjects for comparison. The slaughter of south Korean
people by the US imperialists, the villainous “emigration” plot of the
US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique who try to sell our
brothers to foreign countries, the miserable state of students who are
selling their blood to meet school expenses, the frequent flood and
drought damages, and similar things in south Korea should all be
considered for this purpose.
Comparison between the two parts of Korea should also be made in
speeches and visual methods of education. When they are educated
effectively in this manner all the servicemen will clearly understand
that the differences between the two parts of the country are as great as
those between heaven and hell; and they can have a firm determination
to defend the socialist system in the northern half of Korea, and, hate
and fight against the reactionary social system in the south to the end.
The comparative method of education should also be used in giving
information about the international situation. The changes in the
balance of world forces in the years after the First and Second World
Wars, as well as the present relationship between the forces of the
socialist and capitalist camps, neutral nations and colonial countries
should be handled in contrast to show that the strength of the capitalist
camp is on the decline while the socialist camp is growing stronger
with each passing day. Efficient education through such comparisons
will convince the soldiers that in the event of another world war
imperialism will finally perish from this world and the world
revolution will emerge victorious.
It would also be necessary to arrange a brief written explanation of
the Communist Manifesto in order to convince them of the inevitable
downfall of capitalism and victory for socialism. The study of this
document must be properly supported with the explanation of the
changes in the world since its publication.
During the anti-Japanese armed struggle, we provided ideological
education, putting the main emphasis on imbuing the guerrillas with
hatred for the enemy and confidence in victory. At that time we told
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our men of the fact that the Soviet people had defeated the armed
intruders from 14 countries immediately after the October Revolution.
We also impressed them with the idea of the socialist system, to be set
up in our liberated country so that they might fight courageously,
cherishing this ideal, which has now come true; the socialist system
has been established in the north. This is a very favourable condition
for political work.
The General Political Bureau and other political organizations and
political workers at all levels in the People’s Army must carry out
comparative education efficiently, taking advantage of the present
favourable conditions. Then, you will be able to stir up a burning
hatred for the enemy in the mind of every soldier, and to make him
more confident of victory.
Thirdly, you must intensify communist education.
The most important thing in communist education is to inspire the
soldiers firmly with a revolutionary spirit so that they will oppose the
system of exploitation and devotedly struggle to build a society where
all the people are well-off. Only by strengthening communist
education can you wipe out the remnants of capitalist ideas lingering in
the minds of people and imbue every soldier with the revolutionary
consciousness of the working class.
Through intensive communist education in the People’s Army we
must train all the servicemen to be communist revolutionary soldiers
who hate the system of exploitation and devote their lives to the
struggle for the cause of socialism and communism, and must develop
the People’s Army into an invincible revolutionary force. Moreover,
we must prepare all the People’s Army soldiers to perform the role of
information work and teachers in case they confront the south Korean
puppet army.
The question of communist education was explained in detail in my
speech at the Short Course for Motivation Workers of City and County
Party Committees of the Country in November last year. You should
study it profoundly and carry out educational work strictly abiding by
it.
272
Fourthly, you must plan the servicemen’s life decently and combine
army political work with literature and art activities.
A new February 8 Film Studio should be set up for the army, for the
production of many good films. This will facilitate the education of
soldiers and the rest of the people.
The February 8 Film Studio should produce a host of films dealing
with our revolutionary traditions and the Fatherland Liberation War.
Difficult struggles, sharp vigilance, inseparable ties with the people,
comradeship, unity between officers and men and similar subject
matters should be taken up for the production of films to contribute
actively to the ideological education of soldiers. Besides this, scientific
films necessary for military training should also be made.
The February 8 Film Studio should have facilities to produce seven
to eight copies of feature films every year. It should be staffed with the
necessary personnel, including scriptwriters.
Political work in the army should not be too monotonous; it should
be organized in a different way. Amateur artist groups should be run in
an active manner, many military novels published, and the quality of
the army’s literary magazines improved. Every small unit should be
provided with cable radio facilities as well as musical instruments.
Fifthly, the People’s Army must improve the method of Party
political work.
It must do it boldly in the spirit of what was emphasized at the
recent February Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee and
the enlarged plenary meeting of the North Hamgyong Provincial Party
Committee. The most important method of Party work should be
persuasion and education.
Commanders should always closely keep in touch with their men in
everyday life. This is the way to get rid of warlordism and bureaucracy.
Officers and generals are said to be campaigning at present to take part
in the daily routine of the rank-and-file soldiers. It is a very good thing.
This campaign should be steadily intensified in future.
The People’s Army should thoroughly uproot the lingering evil
effects of the anti-Party, counter-revolutionary factionalists. The main
273
culprits of the anti-Party faction should be removed and those who are
less influenced should be re-educated.
Those who are of an involved class origin and record should be
judged on their merits, mainly on their present work; if they work in
good faith, they should be educated to go along with us.
After this, you should energetically follow the basic direction of
ideological education set by the Party, and thus radically improve Party
political work in the People’s Army.
274
TALK WITH OFFICIALS
OF THE WONSAN
RAILWAY FACTORY
June 4, 1959
Today I have inspected the Wonsan Railway Factory and found it
better equipped than it was last year, its construction project almost
completed and the workers’ technical skills much higher. And all the
workers are striving, as one team, to implement this year’s plan. All
Party members, workers, technicians and leading officials have made
great efforts to build their factory. I am very satisfied with this.
You should not rest content with this success, but work hard to
further equip the factory and increase labour productivity. You should,
at the same time, use steel most economically and boost production.
Above all, you should vigorously struggle to exceed this year’s
production target.
Now that the factory has been mainly equipped, your most
important task is to strengthen the Party committee and unite all the
workers behind the Party.
The Party committee should be firmly built up with hard-core
elements and its role definitely enhanced. Party guidance of the
working people’s organizations should be improved so that the trade
unions, the Democratic Youth League and the Women’s Union
organizations will work efficiently.
You should intensify education of the workers.
Workers in this factory have different backgrounds. There are
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recruits who came from the countryside in the postwar years; there are
former small merchants and entrepreneurs who had gone bankrupt
during the war and people from south Korea. They still have a great
deal of remnants of outdated ideas: the men of merchant origin, the
selfishness which is due to their old habit of dishonest dealings; and the
former entrepreneurs, exploitative capitalist ideas.
As I said at the short training course of Party organizers and Party
committee chairmen of enterprises and chairmen of the provincial, city
and county Party committees, which was held last February, we should
re-educate even those with involved class origin to be revolutionary
workers. The Wonsan Railway Factory should do the same.
The factory Party committee should intensify education for the
workers and thus uproot the remains of obsolete ideas, including
selfishness, and enlighten them with communist ideology. Party core
elements should be imbued with communist ideology, so that they will
educate other Party members, who in turn will teach the people. In this
way all the workers will be united firmly around the Party and trained
to be revolutionary fighters who defend the Party and carry out its
policies through thick and thin. Furthermore, they should be induced to
take care of their factory and machines like the apples of their eyes and
strive to increase production, regarding it the greatest honour to work
for the country and the people.
The Wonsan Railway Factory should train many of its men into fine
Party workers for assignment both at the provincial Party committee
and the Party Central Committee.
Our working class is the cardinal force who safeguard the Party and
struggle to carry out the Korean revolution.
The workers of the Wonsan Railway Factory should guard in good
faith not only their own factory but also our Party, the people’s
government and the socialist system, and fight to the end for the
completion of the Korean revolution.
In addition, you must combat indolence and dissipation.
There have been quite a few such cases among some officials in
Kangwon Province.
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The ex-provincial Party committee chairman led a carefree life,
drinking day and night without showing up at the office regularly. He
came down to the Wonsan Railway Factory but did not attend factory
Party committee meetings or Party cell meetings, nor did he ever give
any lectures to the workers. It seems that he followed the example of
Ho Ka 1 who had drunk day and night, doing mischief during the war.
The former provincial people’s committee chairman, too, was a
drunkard, addicted to misbehaviour. He did not properly fulfil any of
the assignments given by the Party. Since the town construction at
Wonsan was not successful in 1957 I summoned him and gave him the
task of building many houses and schools and provided him with the
necessary funds. But only few houses and schools were built. He also
neglected the tasks we gave him during our on-the-spot guidance to
Kangwon Province last year.
Quite a few of the county Party committee chairmen are also
leading a dissipated life. It is very dangerous for officials to indulge in
drinking and a carefree life.
Our Party is a working-class party, and our government is a
people’s government. There is no room for drunkards and dissipators
in our Party and people’s government. How can we today tolerate such
villains when all the people are rushing forward in the spirit of
Chollima? But Kangwon Province has connived at the misdoings of
the dissipators who had entrenched in the leadership of the provincial
Party and government bodies for four or five years; it neither
combatted them nor reported them to the Party Central Committee.
This is very bad. We should strongly combat those who live a
dissipated life drinking every day.
If Kangwon Province is to combat indolence and irregularities
without compromise, it has to build up all Party committees with
hardcore Party elements of working-class origin.
At present, the composition of Party committees is not good
enough. Take the Wonsan City Party Committee for example. Few of
the workers of the Wonsan Railway Factory are on this committee.
Many of the workers who shed their blood for the country during
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the last war and who are now working zealously at the factory, must
be elected to the committee. There are many hard-core elements
among the workers of the Wonsan Railway Factory who are qualified
for the membership of the city Party committee. Many of its Party
members took the field and fought valiantly, shedding blood for the
country and the people during the Fatherland Liberation War. And
after the war they returned to the factory and they are now working
with all their enthusiasm. All these members are the nuclei of our
Party, and these hard-core elements make our Party strong. We
should build up the Party committees at all levels with Party core of
the working-class origin so that they will relentlessly combat the
dissipators.
If we are to eliminate the indolent and degenerate practices among
the officials, we should strengthen mass control over them.
Such immoralities among some leading workers of the Party and
government bodies in Kangwon Province were mainly due to weak
mass control over them. Therefore, we should give free rein to
intemal-Party democracy, tighten the mass control of Party and
government officials, and deal timely blows at these degenerate
practices so that they may correct such attitude.
In future, many hard-core Party elements should be invited as
observers to plenary meetings of the provincial Party committee and
similar meetings. This will make it possible to disclose and combat in
time the mischiefs of some officials of the Party and government
bodies. This will also be helpful to raise the political level of hard-core
Party elements.
Workers, too, should be guarded against the habit of drinking and a
carefree life.
This habit has been inherited from the old society. Our working
class must not lead such a dissipated life.
We still have to reunify the country and carry out the Korean
revolution. At present the people in the southern half of Korea are
suffering from the oppression of the US imperialists. From the
viewpoint of their standard of living, the people in the northern half
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still have to go a long way to attain the level required by communism.
How, then, can we be pleased with the results we have obtained and
indulge in drinking and indolence? We can never live like that.
We must reunify the country as soon as possible and build
socialism and communism in our land. This is our most important task.
We must always live and work in a mobilized posture.
The Wonsan Railway Factory should intensify ideological
education for its workers to prevent them from indulging in drinking
and dissipation.
For this purpose, different cultural activities should be organized
for the workers. Amateur art performance, sport, story reading and
similar activities should be arranged on holidays. If several persons
who are good at story reading are prepared for public reading at the
house of culture, many people will be interested in such activities. The
Tale of Chun Hyang or The Tale of Sim Chong, along with
revolutionary novels, should be presented. Chess and similar games
could also be advisable for old people. These activities should be
arranged under the sponsorship of the trade unions, Democratic Youth
League and Women’s Union organizations. All workers should thus be
able to rest in a cultured way. Let everyone spend his holidays
enjoying his hobby, whether it is singing, dancing, swimming, boating
or hearing someone reading.
Furthermore, you should strongly combat factionalism and
parochialism.
These are very harmful ideological trends which undermine the
unity of the Party and split the ranks of the working class.
Factionalists used to fight each other. Consequently, they destroyed
the Korean Communist Party which was founded in 1925, and made a
mess of the Korean revolution. Today they are still trying to split our
forces, instead of abandoning their habits.
This time I have found quite a few factionalists and parochialists,
even over here in Kangwon Province. They did not accept the Party
Central Committee’s directives willingly, and manoeuvred viciously
to split our Party.
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Factionalism and parochialism can never be allowed in a working-
class party. A working-class party should be closely united in a
monolithic ideology.
The working class should take the lead in combatting factionalists
and parochialists who try to wreck the unity of the Party. Our working
class should always be loyal to the Party, firmly defend the Party
Central Committee, wholly united around it, and relentlessly fight
whoever slanders the Party Central Committee or opposes its policies.
In Kangwon Province, the Wonsan Railway Factory, which has a
large number of workers, should be on the forefront to safeguard the
revolution and carry out the Party’s policies. With the strong fist of the
working class, you should strike the factionalists who try to undermine
the unity of the Party. Kangwon Province should particularly eradicate
the evil effects of the factionalist Ri Ju Ha and the parochialism that
was prevalent in the Munchon area. In this way, you will leave no
room for the evil effects of factionalism and parochialism to affect the
ra nks of our Party and working class.
Next, you must strengthen the struggle against
c ounter-re volutionaries.
You must not assume that there are no counter-revolutionaries in
our ranks. It is probable that spies, subverters and saboteurs are lurking
even in this factory, working to destroy machines, sabotage production
plans, incite one cadre against another, degenerate workers and collect
secret information. Wonsan in particular is a town where the
probability of spy infiltration is greater than other areas in view of its
coastal location and strategic importance. So you must be on the alert
all the time.
If you are to combat counter-revolutionaries efficiently, it is
necessary to distinguish clearly between friend and foe. You must not
suspect indiscriminately the people with involved family backgrounds,
seeing their personal records. This would make even hard workers feel
uneasy. A person’s social status is not immutable, but it can change.
Even a person of checkered origin can be reformed if he becomes a
factory worker. There are many old-line intellectuals and other people
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of involved origin who are working well. This explains why it is wrong
to judge people on their personal records. The point lies not in their
class origin but in whether they are now supporting our Party policy or
not. If one supports our Party and works honestly, one can be a good
man, no matter what his origin is. Of course, some people may have
talked nonsense because of their ignorance or may not have supported
us or may have opposed our Party policy because of their
misunderstanding, or may have made mistakes under the bad influence
of their parents. But if they now admit their mistakes and work
honestly in support of our Party, we must trust and educate them. We
must educate and transform everybody who supports our Party and
people’s government, upholds our Party’s policies and continues to
follow our Party.
In the struggle against the counter-revolution, the red-handed must
be the target. By “red-handed” we mean those who oppose our Party at
present, find faults with its policies and do not work earnestly, but
sabotage machinery and spread misleading rumours surreptitiously.
These elements should be watched sharply and combatted mercilessly.
To fight the counter-revolution efficiently, it is imperative to
establish a strict revolutionary order and discipline in the factory. Such
order and discipline will prevent moves of spies, subverters and
saboteurs. If all work proceeds in a strict order and under tight
discipline, with machines inspected closely at each shift, seals put on
where necessary and electric equipment well maintained, there will be
no chance for mischiefs, and even if mischiefs are done, they will be
discovered immediately.
You should actively organize the people in the struggle against the
counter-revolutionaries. This factory has hundreds of Party members
and Democratic Youth League activists. If you enlist them skilfully,
they will prove very effective in this struggle. If they are all mobilized
with revolutionary vigilance, the counter-revolutionaries will be
unable to stir.
Furthermore, you must increase the production of machinery and
contribute actively to the technical revolution.
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Technical revolution is an important task confronting us today. We
must carry out the technical revolution in all sectors of the national
economy. To reach our aim, we must produce machines in large
numbers.
The workers of the Wonsan Railway Factory should make great
efforts to increase machine production, with a determination to play
their part in the technical revolution. This is how they should fulfil
their duty as the leading class of the revolution.
Today I saw a planer you had made, and found it fairly good. In line
with the decision of the enlarged meeting of the Presidium of the Party
Central Committee held in last May, the Wonsan Railway Factory
should ensure that all its workshops equipped with cutters make
machines. It should thus increase its production capacity, and further
mechanize and automate production processes. And it should send
some of these machines to other factories. It should particularly help
well in building a provincially-controlled general machine factory in
Wonsan.
At the same time, the Wonsan Railway Factory should produce a
large number of farming machines and supply them to the countryside.
This will accelerate the rural technical revolution and the development
of agriculture.
The factory should also manufacture plenty of building machinery.
We are far from satisfied with the construction of Wonsan. Houses
should be built in large numbers and parks laid out better by speeding
up construction. For this reason, the Wonsan Railway Factory should
produce not only cranes for its own use but large numbers of various
building machines including tower cranes, so as to accelerate the
mechanization of building operations.
Workers should improve their technical levels and skills quickly.
This will increase labour productivity and the output of goods.
In order to enhance the technical standard of the factory workers, it
is necessary for technicians to teach them technology zealously, along
with specialization of production.
Our technicians are people’s technicians who have been educated
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by our Party since liberation-technicians of the working class. It is,
therefore, their obligation to teach technology to the workers.
The Wonsan Railway Factory should take the lead even in the
cultural revolution.
The cultural level of the workers should be raised so that all of them
may live in a cultured way and everyone would be able to study
zealously. The factory should select good comrades and send them to
the Central Party School.
I firmly believe that you will fulfil creditably the tasks given by the
Party.
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FOR THE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT
OF FISHERIES
Speech Delivered at a Meeting of Active Party Members
in the Fishery Sector of Kangwon Province
June 11,1959
This time, we have guided the work of the Party and government
bodies and the economic work in Kangwon Province in accordance
with the decision of the Presidium of the Party Central Committee.
The fishing industry is very important for the economic
development of Kangwon Province. This meeting of activists from
Kangwon Province’s fishery sector is of great significance for the
development of the province’s fishing industry.
Since the April 1957 Plenary Meeting of the Party Central
Committee, big achievements have been made in the fishing industry
of Kangwon Province. The number of fishing boats has increased
considerably and the quantity of seafood has grown fairly greater than
before. Moreover, many processing shops and plants including
refrigeration plants and canneries have been built or enlarged. The
standard of living of workers in this industry has also been markedly
improved and the incomes of the fishermen’s cooperative members,
too, have increased. In general, the workers in the fishing industry
show greater enthusiasm for the renovation of their industry in line
with the decision of the April Plenary Meeting of the Party Central
Committee.
We have found, however, that in spite of those achievements the
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fishing industry of Kangwon Province still has many shortcomings.
The output of marine products is still not large, and the people’s
increasing demand for fish is not yet being met.
This is not because the seas around our country lack fish. The
coastal waters of our country and the deep seas off it abound with both
sedentary and migratory varieties. The natural conditions for
aquaculture are also very good. We have rich sea resources.
Nor is our failure to catch a lot of fish due to a shortage of fishing
tackle. We possess a large number of fishing boats and also have a
variety of fishing implements. Moreover, we are now able to build
more boats and supply as many nets and assorted fishing gear as
necessary, since our industry has developed.
Furthermore, the reason does not lie in the lack of zeal of our
fishery workers or their poor performance on the job. They are
working with great enthusiasm, and are striving to carry out the Party
decision.
Why, then, has the fishing industry not yet developed to the level
that the Party desires? The reason is that the leading officials of all
bodies of the fishery sector have failed to do good organizational work.
Quite a few officials in the fishing industry do not promptly solve
the problems raised by subordinates and, even worse, they flatly turn
down good suggestions from below and do their job in the same old
way, stuck in the old rut.
By word of mouth, they all claim that inspired by the letter of the
Party Central Committee addressed to all Party members, they are
doing their work enthusiastically. But in reality, some leading officials
fail to organize and mobilize the great enthusiasm of the workers
properly, and rather quite often they hinder their work, while the
workers, encouraged by the letter of the Party Central Committee,
display enthusiasm.
On the basis of what I have found out in the course of directing the
work of the fishery sector in Kangwon Province, I want to bring up a
few points to you here with a view to implement more thoroughly the
decision of the April Plenary Meeting on a nationwide scale and bring
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about a great innovation in our country’s fishing industry.
First of all, we should actively carry on the work of bringing the
decision of the April Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee
home to the officials and workers in the fishery sector.
The Party’s policy on fisheries, especially the spirit of the decision
of the April Plenary Meeting, has not yet been fully explained to all
Party organizations and to the workers in the fishing industry. Some
workers in the fishing industry do not know the Party’s policy well,
and do not understand clearly that it is precisely their revolutionary
task to carry through the Party’s policy in their own sector.
Such people are not fully aware that our Party is the vanguard
organization which struggles in the interests of the working people and
leads them to victory in the revolution. Thus, they fail to study the
Party’s decision properly, and they regard the Party organizations as
some sort of supervisory bodies and Party guidance as a nuisance. That
is why they know only the term April Plenary Meeting, but do not fully
understand the content of its decision. Then there are some people who
know about the decision of the April Plenary Meeting, but who do not
conduct the organizational work scrupulously for its implementation
and, what is worse, there are even cases where the Party decision is not
being sincerely carried out.
The Party organizations in the fishery sector, however, fail to wage
an energetic struggle against such tendencies. All the Party
organizations in this sector should therefore hold discussions on the
decision of the April Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee
once again.
That decision has not become obsolete. The issues set forth in that
decision are still important tasks for us. The Party organizations,
therefore, should discuss once again the decision of the April Plenary
Meeting and the letter of the Party Central Committee and thus make
the Party’s policy on fisheries fully known to all the Party members
and working people.
Of course, the issue cannot be settled merely by discussion. One
cannot say that one has accepted the Party’s decision simply because
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one has read it once or learned it by heart.
A fresh discussion would induce all the Party members, workers
and fishermen’s cooperative members to adopt and apply measures to
thoroughly implement the decision of the April Plenary Meeting. They
should assess how the decision has been carried out and what has yet to
be done and then concrete plans should be drawn up to implement what
has still to be carried out from the decision of the April Plenary
Meeting.
Party policy is being neglected because speculative tendencies have
not yet been discarded and medium- and small-scale fisheries are not
extensively developed, and because the Party’s policy on pelagic
fishing is being approved only by word of mouth, but no real
arrangements are made for this work, and no positive measures are
taken for the work of aquaculture, either. As I have already pointed out,
this is due to the fact that the officials in the fishing industry work
bureaucratically and, led astray by conservatism and empiricism, fail
to respond to the Party’s appeal for thinking and acting boldly.
Obstinate people simply stick to the old ways, lose sight of reality,
and continue in the same old rut, but our Party members fail to crush
these tendencies boldly and do not actively struggle to make
innovations in the fishing industry.
Therefore, while discussing the decision of the April Plenary
Meeting and the letter of the Party Central Committee once again, you
should break down the resistance of those who are swayed by such
conservatism, mysticism and empiricism and that of the bureaucrats
and the obstinate elements, and establish the trait of thinking with
daring, displaying bold initiative and acting dauntlessly.
To make a fine landing of fish in all seasons, we should combine
pelagic fishing with medium- and small-scale fisheries and apply
various fishing methods.
As many comrades have said in their speeches, deep seas abound
with fish, including big fish. You should not merely pay lip service to
the need of developing deep-sea fishery, but rather should make good
preparations for it and organize it actively in a planned way.
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For large-scale pelagic fishing, we should also build comparatively
large boats. In pelagic fishing, vessels of several hundred or several
thousand tons, as well as small boats, should stay at sea for long periods.
For this aim, as from this year, the State Planning Commission and
the Ministry of Fisheries should organize the work of building large
craft.
For the time being, even when doing pelagic fishing, you should not
go out too far and stay out too many days.
The example of North Hamgyong Province shows that considerable
successes can also be achieved in whaling. We should catch whales,
dolphins and similar ones to solve the oil problem, which is a very
important issue in our country at present.
We should do pelagic fishing in this way and, at the same time,
develop medium- and small-scale fisheries. We should employ all
kinds of medium- and small-scale fishing methods such as set-net,
gill-net, long- line, dragnet and scoop-net fishing. The examples of the
fishermen’s cooperatives which have earned large incomes by
organizing them well, show clearly how advantageous the medium-
and small-scale fishing methods are.
In the days of Japanese imperialist rule, medium- and small-scale
fisheries also thrived. It is said that in the Bay of Yonghung alone,
600-700 set-nets were laid. In a talk with the workers of the Munchon
Fishery Station, I learned that in the days of Japanese imperialist rule
so many set-nets were laid that they could row their boats only by
dodging their way through them. Nevertheless, our fishermen now
think only of big things, and belittle and neglect such medium- and
small-scale fishing methods.
It is a big mistake to think that these methods are only for
fishermen’s cooperatives and that state-owned fishery stations should
engage only in large-scale fisheries. The Party Central Committee has
never said so. This is all a story cooked up by speculative elements.
The state-owned fishery stations should also engage both in pelagic
and in medium- and small-scale fisheries, employ both big boats and
small ones, and even use hooks and lines and all that. As you said in
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your speeches, set-nets or gill-nets could be laid when the boats sail out
and could be hauled in when they sail back. Why can’t you do this?
Gathering shellfish is also an easy and highly lucrative job. But things
of this kind are neglected.
Even a technologically developed country like the Soviet Union,
makes use of all kinds of medium- and small-scale fishing methods.
Why, then, should we not do the same? A resolute struggle should be
waged against the incorrect tendency to neglect medium- and
small-scale fisheries, and they should be developed on an extensive
scale. If there is a shortage of manpower, it should be increased to
develop medium- and small-scale fisheries.
And we should also chase and catch big schools of mackerel,
pollack, sand eel, anchovy and other migratory fishes. This method,
together with medium- and small-scale fishing and all other methods
should be adopted.
It is necessary to catch fish all the year round through both collective
and individual fishing, in deep seas and in adjacent waters, with large
vessels and with small boats, and catch all varieties of fish. In this way
fish must be landed by various methods. This is the only way to
guarantee a big catch of varied fish and other seafood all the time.
If you want to fish in various ways like this, you will naturally have
to prepare more suitable fishing tackle, build a larger number of
appropriate boats and organize work efficiently. Thus, fishermen
should make sure that they fish for more than 300 days a year.
An energetic struggle should be launched against the old
speculative practice of looking only for schools of pollack and other
seasonal fish and abandoning the rest.
Even with the existing vessels, it is perfectly possible to catch fish
by adopting various methods. The situation is not so bad as to keep us
from fishing due to the lack of boats. As for fishing implements, it is
also possible to catch fish with the ones we have by adopting different
methods.
The point is to thoroughly implement the Party’s policy which calls
for the elimination of the conservative and speculative ideas which still
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remain among fishery workers and for fishing through different
methods all the year round, without leaving the seas.
Next, it is highly important to intensify the work of culture in
shallow seas and lakes.
I was told that according to approximate data, Kangwon Province
alone has an area of more than 42,000 hectares suitable for shallow-sea
culture. In seaweed culture alone, 10,000 hectares of tangle, over 1,600
hectares of the miyok seaweed, and over 2,300 hectares of sea lettuce
and the like can be cultivated and it is said that agar-agar and laver can
also be raised. It is also said that 17,000 hectares of shellfish, more than
7,000 hectares of sea cucumber and over 1,300 hectares of trepang can
be raised. Besides, in this province there are many reservoirs and lakes
such as Lake Tongjong and Lake Sijung.
Though there are wide areas suitable for shallow-sea culture as well
as many lakes and reservoirs, the provincial Party organization and the
officials in the fishing industry have not yet paid much attention to the
work of aquaculture. Only recently have individual activists set about
this work.
I feel impelled to say that you are carrying out the decision of the
Presidium of the Party Central Committee on the aquaculture in a very
unsatisfactory way. I appeal again to the provincial Party
organizations, all Party members and workers in the fishing industry to
go all-out in doing aquaculture.
It is said that according to preliminary estimates, if aquaculture is
undertaken well in an all-round way, the output of seaweeds and
shellfish alone can be about 390,000 tons in 1965. This would really be a
great achievement. Culture in shallow seas and lakes, therefore, should
be carried on extensively. If you do so, you can continue to conserve the
resources, cultivating on the one hand and harvesting on the other. In my
opinion, women are fully able to do jobs like aquaculture.
And fresh-water fish culture should also be developed. The way you
are doing it now is very poor. You all do it by handicraft methods in a
simple and haphazard manner, only by way of experiment.
It is not necessary to go on making experiments alone. Fish culture
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is widespread all over the world, so why should we stick to
experiments all the time? In our country, too, the experiments began
long ago. After attaining a certain level of technology, apply it, and you
will succeed.
The crux of the question is to renounce passivism, and go into
action promptly, boldly and with energy. At present there is not even a
hatchery in large lakes. If you merely catch a few passing fish and
throw them carelessly into the lakes, and then claim you are raising
fish, when do you expect to have fish turned out?
Work must be organized in a planned way and carried forward
energetically. At present our country finds nothing beyond its power in
supplying materials needed for aquaculture. This notwithstanding, you
do not actively conduct the work on this or that pretext, complaining
about the absence of this or that, but only expect to find ready-made
things somewhere and have them brought free.
Work should also be done in the planned protection of fish and
propagation of sedentary fish; an intensive struggle should be waged
against the practice of exterminating fish through random catching.
It is a crime against the people to cause fish to become extinct instead
of protecting and raising them. This might soon exhaust the resources.
Poor work in the protection and raising of fish is due to insufficient
explanations being given to the fishermen. The personnel of all
establishments and workers of the research institutes in the field of
fisheries, are only sticking to their offices and they are even neglecting
their duty to give lectures on the protection and multiplication of the
aquatic resources. As a result, many fishery workers are rather
unaware of the ways that should be adopted to protect and multiply the
aquatic resources and they do not even know why it is necessary to do
so. Things cannot go right because fishermen are not being taught to be
conscious of such ways.
Our people will refrain from such things as exterminating the fish
by catching fish right and left if only you inform them well about the
varieties of sedentary or migratory fish, about when each of them
spawns, when certain varieties should not be caught, why only
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full-grown fish should be caught, and about the serious results of
reckless exploitation of aquatic resources without protecting and
increasing them, and so forth. You must provide fishermen with
sufficient knowledge about the conservation of aquatic resources.
It is very important in the fishing industry to process the catch
properly. The decision of the April Plenary Meeting of the Party
Central Committee set it as one of the most important issues to ensure
proper processing of fish.
Our present catch is not small. But all the fish is not processed in
such a way that the people can eat them with relish. As a woman
worker of the Wonsan Seafood-Processing Plant said in her speech a
little while ago, it is a major crime against the state and the people to
allow the fish which the fishermen have caught with so much effort to
decay or spoil. It is very wrong, when the people’s demand for fish is
great, that fish should be processed so poorly that they spoil or
deteriorate and cannot be eaten or that fish of poor quality, even though
edible, is distributed.
Yesterday, I visited the Wonsan Fishery Station and found that
though they had a good refrigerator with a capacity of freezing over 20
tons of fish a day, instead of using it, they were putting stale, smelly
saury into boxes and sending them to the market. A vigorous
ideological struggle should be waged against such practices.
In processing marine products, good refrigeration is required, and
dried, smoked and canned fish should be produced. It is necessary to
install refrigerators at many places in order to prevent the catch from
getting spoiled and preserve its flavour. Boats should also be equipped
with refrigerators, and each fishery station and, further, each
fishermen’s cooperative should be furnished with a cold storage of
moderate size, so that all the fish caught reach the people fresh. In
cases where this is difficult, fish should be canned or dried and
supplied to the people, and the leftovers should all be used as manure
or feed for domestic animals.
For this purpose, along with refrigeration plants, dried goods
factories and canneries should be built everywhere. As for the
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canneries, you should not try to set up very big ones, but build a large
number of medium- and small-scale plants in various places. It is not
hard to set up a cannery. It can be constructed in a simple manner,
without much effort.
Keen attention should also be paid to the processing of by-products.
As for pollack in particular, while the flesh is nice, its roe and entrails
make fine food, more palatable to the Koreans. You should process
them cleanly and make plenty of pickled roe, pickled entrails and liver
oil; you should also produce paste of seasoned sea-urchin eggs and
other edibles preferred by the Koreans. These you should supply to the
people in an efficient way.
In processing marine products, you must also endeavour to raise
their quality in accordance with the decision of the February 1959
Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee. A wide variety of
tasty, clean and inexpensive processed seafood should be produced
and supplied to the people in sufficient amounts.
The most important thing for the development of the fishing
industry today is to lay the technological foundations for the
management bureaus and for all the fishery stations and fishermen’s
cooperatives.
These foundations are not yet firmly laid and this is the weakest li nk
in the fishing industry.
Laying technological foundations means setting up the necessary
factories under each management bureau. Only then can the fishing
industry rapidly develop.
First of all, there should be fishing implement factories under each
provincial management bureau. It would be desirable to set up small-
and medium-size factories that can easily be built with small
investments, for instance, factories like the present local enterprises,
instead of trying to erect large ones. Thus, nets, buoys, ropes and
various other fishing implements should be produced.
Due to the lack of such factories under the management bureaus, we
are failing to ensure a timely supply of fishing implements required by
the fishery stations and fishermen’s cooperatives. People have to go
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through a lot of red tape to get supplies of fishing implements. As it
was mentioned during today’s session, the Munchon Fishery Station
wanted to lay set-nets and applied for the nets last September, but the
management bureau delivered them only in April of this year. Because
vital fishing equipment is not obtained in time, the season is missed
and so is the opportunity for a big catch.
That is why every management bureau should have fishing
implement factories. These factories should be set up at an early date,
not later than within a few months.
Also, the management bureaus must have general machine-building
factories. Such factories, each of them with some 50 machine tools,
should unfailingly be set up for each bureau by encouraging them to
make machine tools for themselves and supplying them with machines
manufactured through the let-each-machine-tool-make-more
movement, plus some high-precision machines produced by specialized
machine-building plants.
By setting up such factories, we should build the cranes necessary
for unloading operations, machines for the production of wire ropes
and for disembowelling the fish, pushcarts, conveyers, and various
other kinds of machines.
As these factories develop, it would also be a good thing for them to
manufacture small-size motors. In the future, small sailing boats
should also be equipped with motors to increase their manoeuvrability.
In this way, all work, from fishing operations to the processing of
seafood, should be mechanized and the technical revolution set forth
by the Party should also be actively promoted in the fishing sector.
Furthermore, one or two dockyards should be set up in each
province according to the number of craft. Two dockyards should be
set up in South Hamgyong Province, but one will do for Kangwon
Province. That would solve the problem of boat repairs.
The dockyards should make machine tools on their own and
increase their equipment, and guarantee rapid and high-quality repairs.
For timely repairs of ships, spare parts and engines should be
produced or kept in stock ahead of time, and they should be used in
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quick replacement when a boat requiring repairs comes in, instead of
spending time in dismantling and repairing its machines after its
arrival, as is the practice now. Thi s will make it possible to shorten
repair time markedly and raise the boats’ operation rate.
Besides, in boat repairs, order and discipline should also be
established. At present, work in this field is done in awful disorder and
irresponsibly. Repairs of ships are done with no time limit, and nobody
is called to account for it even when it takes more than a hundred days
to repair a boat. Such shortcomings should be promptly remedied.
The time limit for boat repairs should be definitely fixed according
to the extent of the repairs, and a system should be adopted under
which the failure to finish the repairs within the set time is punishable
by a fine.
Moreover, in case the fixed term of repairs is violated, the captain
or the chief engineer of the vessel concerned should have the right to
call the dockyard to account for it and demand the completion of
repairs on schedule.
Provincial fishery management bureaus should have the factories
and dockyards I have just mentioned and other necessary plants such as
rope and wire factories. They should also set up for themselves
factories to produce refrigerators, cannery installations and equipment
for packing materials plants, plus wooden barrels and glass containers.
A management bureau can play a role worthy of its name, and work
creatively and enterprisingly, only when it has factories. The director
or the chief engineer of management bureau cannot conduct his work
dynamically and daringly without such a technological basis, even if
he wants to.
Of course, a profuse manifestation of bureaucracy and poor
organization of work are the main shortcomings of the management
bureau’s work, but it cannot properly play its role as master no matter
how hard it tries, because such conditions have not been ensured for it.
Hence, it is a matter of first consideration to lay the technological
foundations of the provincial fishery management bureaus as soon as
possible.
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At the same time, three or so lathes, drilling machines, shapers and
the like should be installed at each fishery station and fishermen’s
cooperative so that they can do simple repairs all by themselves.
Because they lack these things, they are compelled to bring their
vessels into a dockyard even when a small accessory gets out of order.
Further, the dockyards cannot organize the repair work efficiently if
they have to handle the simplest repairs. To organize repairs promptly
and raise the boats’ operation rate, a way to handle simple repairs at the
fishery enteiprises themselves should be found quickly.
In the final analysis, you cannot raise the fishing industry to a
higher level without technological foundations. Therefore, the Party
must pay great attention to improving the technical equipment of the
fishing industry.
In particular, some kinds of machines produced by ministries with
large factories such as the Ministries of Machine Industry, Transport,
Metal Industry and Chemical Industry, should be supplied in large
quantities to the fishing industry. I think it would be a good idea for the
factories in Wonsan which belong to different ministries to start this
work. Local factories, too, should launch a struggle to lay the
technological foundations of the fishing industry, not to speak of such
big factories as the Wonsan Railway Factory, the Munchon Machine
Factory, the Munphyong Smeltery and the Chonnaeri Cement Factory.
Only by strengthening the technological basis of the fishing
industry will it be possible to guarantee a regular supply of fishing
implements, repair the boats quickly and mechanize fishing,
unloading, processing and all other operations.
The issue cannot be settled by trying to land fish in the manner of
shouting yo-heave-ho, yo-heave-ho as in bygone days without carrying
out technological reconstruction, without laying a technological basis.
In the fishing industry, necessary factories should be fully equipped
immediately through an energetic struggle to lay its technological
basis. This work should be undertaken not only in Kangwon Province
but also in South and North Hamgyong Provinces and in all parts of the
west coast. It is high time to do this work. Only two or three years ago,
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we were not able to discuss such an issue.
But today the situation is different. Our industry has reached a new
stage of development. Moreover, mysticism about machinery has been
smashed, and the let-each-machine-tool-make-more movement is
extensively under way throughout the country. Under these conditions,
we are fully able to carry out the task of laying the technological
foundations of the fishing industry.
While improving the technical equipment of the fishing industry,
we should develop it on a highly scientific basis. For this, it is very
important to energetically introduce the achievements of advanced
science and technology, train a large number of technical personnel
and raise the technical level of the fishery workers.
Our country is still weak as far as fishing by scientific methods is
concerned. It is weak in creating new scientific and technological
methods by displaying creative initiative, and we generally catch fish
through past experience and by old-fashioned methods.
Our fishery establishments and scientific workers even lack a clear
knowledge of things like the change of sea conditions and alteration of
ocean currents and a clear understanding of the migratory patterns and
habitat of the fish. Consequently, in searching for a school of fish, too,
they only follow the former courses of migration.
It seems to me that fish are not like hares. A hare always sticks to its
familiar track. The hare, too, will find a new course when frightened,
so how can the fish living in the vast sea always take the same course?
Moreover, ocean conditions and currents change constantly.
According to such variations, changes may take place both in the
habitat of the sedentary fish and in the conditions of the migratory
varieties. But people just bemoan the flight of sardines and the absence
of the schools of mackerel, instead of forming a scientific estimation of
such changes and actively searching for the fish.
Furthermore, scientific research is very deficient on problems
dealing with the kind of fishing tackle suitable for our country and ways
to speed up the catch. In our country, scientific research in the fishing
industry is still backward when comparing with other industrial sectors.
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Our country is bounded on three sides by the sea, where there are
inexhaustible resources. Exploitation and utilization of those resources
are of great significance in promoting the welfare of our people and
improving their standard of living. Scientific research in the fishing
industry should be actively promoted and new and more scientific
workers be trained.
Moreover, the training of scientific and technical personnel should
also be conducted in close connection with production in keeping with
the actual situation of our country. In the past the negative elements
lurking in the Wonsan University of Agriculture did great harm to the
education of the students. In the eight years since the opening of the
fishery faculty of the Wonsan University of Agriculture, many
students have graduated, but none of them have ever been out to sea. It
is said that last year the students went out to sea for the first time. And
I was told that they were all down with seasickness at first. After they
had made several trips out at sea and got used to sailing, they never got
seasick, and caught lots of fish by themselves, and now they are said to
be very fond of going out to sea.
Those technicians who left school without going through such
practical exercises will not be able to inspire the fishermen to activity
in fishing operations, for they themselves are afraid of going out to sea.
Technicians must get out on board a ship together with the fishermen,
but they are afraid to do so because they get seasick. So, they are
obliged to stick to their offices, and thus they will get out of touch with
the actual situation. It is only too clear that things cannot go well if you
train technicians and conduct research work in such a way.
The Party should pay special attention to the work of training
scientific workers and technicians for the fishing industry who have a
high level of scientific and technical knowledge and who have been
seasoned in productive activities.
We are very short of technicians in the fishing industry. In fact, there
are no technicians in almost all fishery stations which I have visited.
Fishery colleges and schools should be set up in large numbers. In
my opinion, in maritime counties like Kosong and Thongchon, it
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would be good to reorganize all the senior middle schools into
fishermen’s vocational schools. Only then will the ranks of technicians
expand among the fishing workers, new fishing methods be created
incessantly and greater activity exhibited to conquer the sea.
The fishing industry cannot develop unless numerous new
technicians and cadres join it.
Besides, it is important to conduct extensive technical education
among the workers in the fishing industry. At present, such people as
head fishermen neglect technical studies once they obtain certificates.
In general, workers in the fishing industry are negligent about technical
studies, and they do almost nothing to introduce the advanced
technology of other countries. Consequently, they know nothing more
than the outdated methods they have adopted so far. Indeed, the
experience hitherto gained is also important, and needs to be learned.
But that alone is not enough.
Since society incessantly changes and develops, all our science and
technology should also progress in step with it.
We should learn from the Soviet Union and other advanced
countries, and also learn from the positive experience of capitalist
countries. At the same time, we should study the fishery techniques of
our country and exhibit creative initiative in this field.
Our country has now reached a high stage in socialist construction
and has already started the technical revolution for its acceleration.
The fishing industry should also keep pace with the development of
the national economy as a whole. The fishing industry alone cannot
mark time while all other industries embark upon a new stage. It is
therefore necessary in the fishing industry to step up scientific research
and improve the training of technical personnel and, at the same time,
dynamically conduct technical education to raise the technical level of
the fishery workers.
The work to conquer the sea and exploit the rich marine resources
should be launched as a nationwide movement and, for this purpose, a
widespread mass education should be conducted to cultivate the spirit
of actively going out to sea.
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Our country is a maritime country, bounded by the sea on three
sides. For our people, especially for those who live by the sea, it is a
glorious and worthy task to conquer the boundless sea and exploit its
rich resources.
This honourable mission cannot be fulfilled without a love for the
sea, without getting familiar with it, and without a great desire to go
out to sea.
We should impart the knowledge of the sea to the new generation
from primary school on and imbue them with a longing for the sea and
the desire to work there cheerfully. Particularly at schools located on
the coast subjects concerning the sea should be included in the
curriculum so that pupils would have more knowledge on the sea.
Now there seem to be shortcomings with regard to the school
curriculums and textbooks prepared dogmatically, that clash with our
actual conditions. These matters need re-examination.
Education should be so conducted as to enable everybody to
possess a general knowledge of ocean currents and tides as well as of
the marine resources.
Moreover, the young generation should be taught to love the
exciting job of hunting for the treasures of the seas, and trained to
operate as freely at sea as on the shore. Young people should be
encouraged to go swimming, rowing and fishing on the sea. Only by so
doing can the people be greatly inspired to go out to sea and everybody
operate freely at sea without fearing it so that he conquers it and
exploits its resources.
This kind of educational work should be extensively conducted
both in school and amongst the people.
But now there is not even a song worth mentioning about the sea.
There is, if any, only one or two songs about the scenic beauty of the
sea. There is almost no song which describes how rich the marine
resources are, how glorious and worthwhile it is to go to sea and
exploit these resources, or which tells about the dynamic struggle of
the fishermen. Many such songs should be composed and sung.
Our Party has long since emphasized the importance of exploiting
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the sea resources. The Party’s slogan “Effective use of the sea should
be made by sea-side regions” means precisely that you should go to sea
and exploit it. Yet, those who live in the coastal areas sit atremble in
fear of the sea instead of exploiting it. How can you conquer the sea if
you are afraid of it?
There is nothing to fear about the sea. From olden times, our
country boasts of many feats of marine exploitation and brave sea
fights.
Admiral Ri Sun Sin built turtle-shaped battleships which no other
country had ever made before, to counter the Japanese invasion. Only
the ruling classes failed to go to sea. Under the corrupt feudal
government they led a luxurious life, merely singing the praises of the
scenic beauty and drinking liquors. In fact, our people have always
loved the sea and exploited it generation after generation.
In our age, the work for the conquest and exploitation of the sea
should be launched as an all-people movement. Exploitation of marine
resources will make it possible not only to raise the people’s living
standard, but further improve their health as well. Not only men, but
even women should go to work at sea. It is said that women divers at
Jeju Island leave their men at home and feed them with their earnings
from the sea. Women, too, can take up jobs at sea.
In Kangwon Province, I found out that the Democratic Youth
League is not carrying out its duty. In Wonsan, a port city, there is not
even a swimming club, and sports such as yachting and boating are not
organized, either. The Democratic Youth League should conduct this
kind of work. But the young people go only to such inappropriate
places as the Juul hot-spring, Sogwangsa or Sambang for holiday
recreation. Those places are just for old folks who feel cold even on
ordinary days.
Young people should go to work at sea on a wide scale. Moreover,
to smash conservatism and innovate work in this sector and push it a
step forward, large numbers of young people should go to work at sea.
What is the pride of our young generation? It is that they are
always willing to bear the brunt of any task, be it more difficult,
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more arduous and more important, and always move forward with
courage and audacity. The sea is, indeed, a workplace for young
people who are highly enterprising and burning with passion. What a
worthwhile thing it is for young people in full vigour to plough
through the waves to head for the open sea and exploit its
inexhaustible resources for the prosperity of their socialist country!
Work at sea cultivates boldness and courage in the young people and
makes them physically stronger.
If young people take up jobs at sea, more fishing voyages will be
made and net-casting will be increased, more active fishing methods
will be devised and new things will be introduced with greater
audacity. Because there is a shortage of young people in the fishing
industry, few new fishing methods and inventive ideas and proposals
have yet been advanced in this field.
In the future, large numbers of junior and senior middle school and
fishery school graduates should be sent to work at sea, so that young
people make up 80-90 per cent of the personnel in the fishing industry.
This is also of great importance in view of the national defence of our
country surrounded by the sea on three sides.
Young people should cooperate with the elders and learn from their
experience and, taking difficult jobs upon themselves, should catch
more fish by new and active methods.
Now, I would like to refer to the fishermen’s standard of living.
Fishermen are engaged in an arduous job. More attention should be
paid to the life of the fishermen who go out and struggle against heavy
seas even on cold, blustery winter days and rainy days.
In the Wonsan area, more attractive houses should be built for the
workers of the fishery station, and cultural facilities should also be
improved for them.
In connection with the fishermen’s standard of living, their wage
system should be reviewed.
I think it would be a good idea to revise the wage system to give
much higher wages to those who go out fishing frequently. It is also
advisable to establish fishing quotas, so that those who make big
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catches are paid more. Besides, fishermen who go out to sea for over
300 days a year and obtain good catches should be awarded by the state
with definite amounts of bonuses.
In this way, to induce the fishery workers to go out to sea more
often and make big catches, they should not merely be mobilized
ideologically but they should also benefit materially. This is good both
because plenty of fish will be caught and because the incomes of the
fishermen will increase.
They should be given longer vacations. It is said that the vacation
period of the workers in the fishing industry is longer than that of
workers in other sectors, i.e., 28 days, and this is a good thing. I think it
would be good to grant a month’s vacation to the fishermen and allow
them to have it in two separate periods.
As is set forth in the decision of the April Plenary Meeting, nice
resting places should be set up for the fishermen, so that they can enjoy
a pleasant life of cultural recreation, listening to the radio and seeing
films, when they return from the sea. Good rest homes should also be
provided for them.
A system should be established to educate the fishermen by making
an effective use of the time when they are unable to go out fishing
because of strong winds and rough seas, and arrangements should be
made for them to go to rest homes on such occasions.
Furthermore, communist education should also be intensified
among all the fishing workers.
Some fishermen still retain the habit of bygone days when they
passed the time away drinking when they earned some money from
fishing.
In the days of Japanese imperialist rule, when they were oppressed
by the capitalists and shipowners, they had no prospects and had a dim
future before them. So they might have lived from day to day, spending
the money they earned on drinking. But today their situation has
changed fundamentally. The workers, as masters of their country, are
now building a socialist society and struggling to lay the foundations
for the well-being of the generations to come, so why should they lead
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a frivolous and carefree life, drinking liquor? They should not do so.
The remnants of outdated ideas still lingering in the minds of
fishermen should be eliminated and the habit of hoboism as manifested
in the former lumberjacks, gold-miners or boatmen who lived in a
happy-go-lucky fashion should be discarded.
Today, our fishermen are full-fledged builders of socialism and
workers of a socialist society who have been educated for 14 years. We
should educate all the fishermen to become workers who struggle more
actively to defend the socialist system and step up socialist
construction with such a sense of honour.
We should see to it that they are equipped with revolutionary
ideological consciousness, that the communist way of life is
established among them, so that all of them work and live in a way
worthy of socialist builders.
We should tell them in time about the situation in the country, about
the state of affairs in the Party and other developments so that they will
not lose touch with all the life in our country since they are always out
at sea, and, especially, we should give them a thorough knowledge of
our Party’s policy and thus bring them to display patriotic devotion in
its implementation.
Moreover, a resolute struggle should be waged amongst the
fishermen against the practices of not caring for the state and society
but thinking only of themselves. We should see to it that they take good
care of the boats and fishing implements which are the properties of the
state and cooperative organizations. At the same time, education in
collectivism should be strengthened to lead them to rely on and help
each other, inasmuch as they wage an intense struggle on the rough
sea.
The struggle against bureaucracy should be intensified. The
bureaucracy remaining in some leading officials in the fishing
industry, causes no small hindrance to work.
Bureaucracy should be eliminated, so that everything is carried out
quickly and correctly and the creative proposals made by the people
are applied in practical work without delay.
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And the socialist gains should be defended and the enemy’s acts of
subversion and sabotage should be crushed at every step.
The faster we build socialism, the more rabidly the enemy tries to
wreck our socialist system. Particularly, the enemy attempts to send in
numerous spies by sea. Therefore, our fishermen should sharpen their
vigilance and further intensify their struggle against spies and launch a
vigorous campaign to prevent the enemies from worming into our
midst to gain a foothold or conduct harmful activities in the fishery
sector.
For an effective struggle against spies, you should also avoid all
kinds of corruption. The enemy tries to take advantage of it.
The reason why work did not fare well with the Party organization
of Kangwon Province in the past lies also in the fact that some unsound
elements in the leading positions of the provincial Party committee and
the provincial people’s committee were corrupted and did not attend to
their work. They did not properly guide the work for improving the
people’s standard of living in the province and speeding up socialist
construction, nor did they wage an energetic struggle against
espionage agents.
In view of such an experience, I would like to emphasize again that
the workers of every fishery station and the members of every
fishermen’s cooperative, by heightening their revolutionary vigilance,
should all launch more vigorous struggle against spies and should not
become slack and corrupt and dissipated.
If the struggle against spies is to be waged effectively, order and
discipline should be strengthened. At present, however, there is no
discipline, and no order has been established in the fishing industry of
the province. During my visits I have found out that this is true as far as
fishery stations and the fishermen’s cooperatives are concerned. The
same can be said for the shipyard and the dockyard. In such places,
saboteurs cannot be detected however freely they may manoeuvre.
Even when something goes wrong, there is no finding out whether it is
done by a good person or an ill-intentioned one, whether it goes wrong
in spite of good intentions or whether it is an intentional action.
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A spy does not go around with a spy label on his forehead.
Discipline and order should also be tightened, to ferret out the hidden
enemies.
If stringent order and discipline are established, corrupt and
dissipated practices would be eliminated and work would be taken in
hand and carried on properly in all fields, and if all the people are on
the lookout, even a “superhuman” spy would not be able to manoeuvre,
and, wherever he may go, he would be detected by them as by a
“demons”-revealing mirror.
Following this meeting of activists, our Party members and all
fishermen should discuss the decision of the April Plenary Meeting
once again and wage a vigorous campaign for its implementation and
bring about a great innovation in the fishing industry.
I wish all the Party members in the fishery sector would strive to
make continuous progress, maintaining the upsurge of socialist
construction in keeping with the spirit of the Party’s Red Letter, firmly
rallied around the Party Central Committee.
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LET US SHOW THE WHOLE WORLD
THE EXCELLENCE OF SOCIALIST ART
Talk with the Artists Who Are to Participate
in the Seventh World Festival of Youth and Students
July 1,1959
I am told that the artist delegation which will be attending the
forthcoming world festival of youth and students includes many
workers, peasants, youth and students. That is very good.
If we are to develop our art on a right track, we should popularize it.
Only when broad sections of the working people in factories and rural
communities are able to take an active part in art activities, art would
truly belong to the people and so would be developed quickly.
People’s art means creating an art which truthfully reflects the life
of the people and is congenial to their thoughts and sentiments. Only
such an art would touch the heartstrings of the people and excite them
to laughter or move them to tears. It will also inspire people to get
down to work with fresh strength and courage and will play the role of
an educator that stimulates them to reflect upon their work and lives
and correct their mistakes on their own.
We have achieved many successes in popularizing art and
developing it into the people’s art. This time I have seen your
performance, and found it much better than before. But you must never
rest content with this success. On the contrary, you should strive to
develop it even further.
A major shortcoming in developing our literature and art is that
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they still fail to truthfully depict the people’s lives. Some of the
novels dealing with the People’s Army are still not agreeable to the
life, thinking and feelings of soldiers. The People’s Army soldiers
feel very dissatisfied with such novels. These do not truthfully
represent the soldiers’ actual life not because their authors are bad
people but because they are not aware of the life of the People’s
Army.
If our art is to be developed into a people’s art which is congenial to
their life, thinking and feelings, all sectors of the people, including
workers, peasants, servicemen and students, should take an active part
in art activities.
If the wisdom and talents of the people are enlisted, many excellent
works will be produced, which vividly mirror the reality. Needless to
say, works of art created by factory workers or farmers may not be so
good in their artistic skill as those of professional artists. But artistic
pieces produced by the people depict life truthfully and vividly, and
they can be improved with a little touch by professionals, to be
excellent works of high ideological and artistic qualities.
Our country has now favourable conditions for developing the art
on a mass basis. Formerly our people lived without joy and songs
under the exploitation and oppression of the Japanese imperialists,
landlords and capitalists. Today they are working and living
optimistically, with a great hope and ambition for the future as masters
of the country. Dances and songs are today natural part of their labour
and lives, and their artistic level is also very high.
Last summer, we were inspecting North Phyongan Province; one
day when we were having a break, we heard melodious songs of
cooperative girls weeding their fields, echoing back and forth from the
hills. The girls on the front hill sang a song, and those on the back hill
returned another, working merrily, indeed. Their simple melodies were
so beautiful that we recorded it to be able to listen it even later. Such
beautiful songs of the people should be positively encouraged and
developed.
I was told that this year there would also be a national art festival
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and it would be advisable to arrange such activities more often. If it is
done regularly, amateur art group activities will develop widely among
the people, and many beautiful new dances and songs will be
presented.
Our Party’s policy of popularizing art is absolutely correct. You
comrades should strive to implement this policy.
Next, I would like to touch on some problems of how you should
conduct yourselves and work at the world festival of youth and
students.
It is most important that all the comrades who are going to the
festival have a firm conviction and a high sense of pride that our
socialist system is superior to the capitalist system beyond compare.
Over there in the capitalist country, you will see at a glance the
glittering streets and rich people walking about in fashionable dresses
and shoes. But it will be a mistake if you imagine that the people in
capitalist countries are well-off or that capitalist society is more
developed than socialist society.
In social progress, capitalism lags one stage behind socialism. The
socialist society is a society which is free from exploitation and
oppression and in which all the people work alike and are equally
happy. But the capitalist society is a society where exploitation and
oppression prevail and the working people are poverty-stricken with
no political rights. Even in the United States which is regarded as the
most developed country of the capitalist world, there are a large
number of unemployed people and beggars wandering in the streets.
True, our country still lags a little behind the developed capitalist
countries economically and technically and people are not as finely
dressed because it was under feudal and Japanese colonial rule for a
long time and skipped over industrial revolution. But in our country
there are no ill-clad and hunger-stricken people; all the working people
are leading a free and happy life as masters of the country.
People from capitalist countries get their first impression that our
country is not developed at the sight of our modest streets, but when
they see the true picture of our society in the course of their stay, they
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unanimously say that our socialist system is incomparably better than
the capitalist system.
Last year a south Korean passenger plane happened to land in the
northern half of Korea. At that time a stewardess gave her impression
of Pyongyang: in the streets of Pyongyang there are no people who are
particularly well dressed or ill-clad, and all of them are going about in
decent clothes; in the morning the grownups all go to work and
children go to school; the shops keep no luxurious goods worth
mentioning but a large stock of ordinary fabrics and other goods for the
working masses. This is what it differs from Seoul, she said.
In Seoul, for example, there may be a lot of makeups and fancy
goods. But only the landlords, capitalists and bureaucrats who are rich
and lapped in luxury can afford to buy them and so they are useless for
the ill-dressed and starved workers and peasants. There are a number
of universities in south Korea, but the poor people have no access to
them, and even if some of them manage to go through them, they can
hardly find employment.
Socialist society has an incomparable superiority over capitalist
society especially in the ideological and cultural aspects. The level of
ideological consciousness of our people who have received socialist
education for 15 years since liberation is very high. All of them possess
a sound ideology and noble moral qualities. The problem of
developing technology and providing the people with fine clothes can
be resolved soon if factories are built and the technical revolution is
carried out. But not everyone can easily acquire such a high degree of
ideological awareness as our people. You should have a sense of pride
in your peerless ideological superiority over the people of capitalist
countries.
Moreover, you should be highly proud of our art. Ours is the most
beautiful, noble and revolutionary art in the world. Foreigners who
have seen artistic performances in our country are struck with
admiration for our art, and say that Korean art is the best in the world.
Probably there are good singers and dancers among the artists of
capitalist countries. But their songs and dances are not for the people,
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so that they do not cater for the thinking and feelings of the people and
are not liked by the working masses.
Unlike the capitalist art, our art, born of the people, depicts the
people’s own lives. Since our art belongs to the people, it will win
acclamation from the people even in capitalist countries. In any
capitalist country, the working people including workers and peasants
form the overwhelming majority of the population. As toiling people
they are similar to our people in thinking and feelings, although their
national customs and languages differ from ours. So our art will no
doubt be enjoyed and welcomed by the workers, peasants and working
intellectuals in the capitalist country.
At this world festival of youth and students, capitalists and their
spokesmen, the bourgeois critics, may speak ill of our art one way or
another. Our art will look beautiful to the workers, peasants and
progressive intellectuals, but it will offend the eyes of the capitalists.
Since capitalists are addicted to a dissipated life or take pleasure in
looking at naked women dance, they will find fault with the songs and
dances of our artists, however excellently these are performed. You are
not participating in this festival to win their favour or appreciation.
Therefore, you should give no heed to their clamours.
You, comrades, must clearly understand the purpose of attending
the festival. Your aim is not to bring golden or silver medals by
winning the first or second place at the festival, but to strengthen
friendship and solidarity with the progressive people the world over,
give wide publicity to our brilliant success in building socialism and
our Party’s policy of national reunification, lay bare the crimes of the
US imperialist aggressors, and thus win over many more supporters
and sympathizers for our revolution.
In order to force out US imperialism and reunify the country, we
must strengthen our internal revolutionary forces and, at the same time,
cement friendship and solidarity with the progressive people of the
world, so that peoples of many countries oppose US imperialism and
support us. To reach this aim, we should take advantage of all
opportunities and places in the international arena to make our country
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known to more people by various means. If we avoid contacts with
people in capitalist countries or follow a policy of seclusion, on the
ground of adhering to the revolutionary stand, we will be unable to
convince the world people of the wickedness of US imperialism and
exert revolutionary influence upon these people.
The world festival of youth and students will be attended by young
people from the socialist countries, from those struggling for national
liberation and from the capitalist world. Among them may be those
who believe in Buddhism or Christianity, or reactionaries and what
not. But you should not be afraid of it. You should establish close ties
with the youths of all strata and strive to exert revolutionary influence
upon them.
At the festival you should properly explain the advantages of our
socialist system to the Austrian people and the young people from
many countries. In other words, you should convince the world of the
fact that our country has made great progress in all political,
economical and cultural sectors. To do so, you have to sing well, dance
well and do political work well. In particular, you should show them
how beautiful and progressive our art is, and illustrate that ours is not
outdated and corrupt art, but that it is for our nation, for socialism and
for the working masses.
Successful art activities are of great significance in creating
favourable climate for the external activities of our Party and
Government. Skilful art activities will help greatly towards increasing
the international prestige of our country, promoting cultural
interchange with other countries and developing political and
economic relations with them.
If you make good artistic presentation at the festival, it will have a
good effect on people in capitalist countries, and especially on the
Koreans in Japan and the people in the south of our country.
The authority and prestige of our Republic are now very high
among the Korean compatriots in Japan. Most of the Koreans living in
Japan are from the Jolla and Kyongsang Provinces, but they hope to
come to the northern half of Korea rather than south Korea, if the road
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to repatriation is opened. About 300,000 of them have reportedly
expressed their desire to return to the northern half of the country.
This is because south Korea has turned into a veritable hell under
the rule of Syngman Rhee. In south Korea several millions of jobless
people are now roaming about the streets, and the people are suffering
from poverty and they have no rights. Even south Korean newspapers
are expressing public discontent with Syngman Rhee’s rule.
Today the realities in the two parts of Korea show a striking
contrast. Some time ago a Japanese journalist said in his article in a
magazine that one part of Korea north of the 38th parallel is a bright
land and the other, the south, is a dark land. Our brothers in Japan are
well aware of the entirely different realities in these regions. That is
why they regard the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as their
genuine homeland and are resolutely struggling to realize their
repatriation to the Republic in spite of all the obstructive manoeuvres
by US imperialism, Japanese reactionary ruling circles and the
traitorous Syngman Rhee clique.
The Korean compatriots in Japan are now said to be fond of our
music and dancing. Although Korean artists and other compatriots in
Japan have not been personally to the northern half of Korea, they are
fully aware of our radiantly blooming art by means of radios and
movies and they strive to learn from our art. Recently the Korean
writers and artists in Japan got together in Tokyo and formed an
organization of men of literature and art who declared in their
programme that they would endeavour to carry forward the traditions
of our revolutionary literature and art.
Our art has also great influence on the south Korean people. It is
said that many of them sing our songs in secret even under the cruel
repression and strict watch of the enemy. This explains that ours is a
genuinely national art which represents the thoughts and sentiments of
all the Korean people.
South Korean students studying in France, West Germany and
other capitalist countries may come to the world festival of youth and
students. If they see your performance they will be influenced. At
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present, American “gang” dances and decadent songs hold sway in
south Korea. If they compare our art with the “gang” art of American
style in south Korea, they will realize which is genuinely patriotic and
which is traitorous to the country and the people.
Even a former “minister” of the south Korean puppet government,
seeing our artist performance over here, said that a pure national art of
Korea is being inherited and developed in north Korea.
This spring, south Korean fishermen drifted to the north in a storm
while fishing in the waters off Haeju. At that time our government
officials looked after them kindly out of brotherly sympathy and
showed them around the different places of the northern half including
Haeju and Pyongyang before sending them back home. They were
reportedly detained on their return and questioned by the south Korean
police about what they had seen in the north and what mission they had
been given. They are said to have replied that they had seen art
performances and films several times in Haeju and Pyongyang,
farmers raising crops in well-irrigated fields with the help of tractors,
free from drought damages, and children of workers and peasants
receiving free education at universities, and that they had been given
no other mission than to tell their neighbours about the facts they had
witnessed in the north. Then, the policemen grumbled that the
fishermen had all become “Reds” in a few days’ stay in north Korea.
From this we can see clearly what a great influence our reality has on
the south Korean people.
There were a few enemy agents among the fishermen who came at
the time. We knew it, but we did not detain them. We sent them back
after showing them around factories, farm villages and schools. We are
not afraid to show our things to the south Koreans because everything
we do is just for the cause of the country and the people.
Our Party’s policy is to convince more south Korean people of the
vibrant reality in the north and influence all of them through our
brilliant success in building socialism.
As I have said more than once, Kim Ku came to Pyongyang for the
north-south joint conference held in 1948. He was a die-hard
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nationalist who had doggedly opposed communism. But when he met
us over here and saw with his own eyes the achievements made by the
people in the north, he said that he found north Korea to his liking on
that visit; that the north Korean communists were different from those
he had met in Shanghai and south Korea; that communists were
excellent, though he had considered them narrow-minded and useless
before; and that they were true patriots and masters of Korea. When he
was departing for south Korea, he said that he would like to remain in
the north but had to go back because they would say that he had been
detained in the north. He also said that he would no longer work for the
Americans, but would tell the south Korean people that government in
north Korea was right and people were living a happy life. Moreover,
Kim Ku said that if it would get worse to live in south Korea, he would
come again, expressing his wish that he would be given an orchard if
that would happen. Back in south Korea Kim Ku worked against US
imperialism and explained the correctness of our Party’s policies to
young people. Then, the American imperialists assassinated him.
Ryo Un Hyong also visited the north several times, and this made
him change his idea much better. So they killed him, too.
All the people of different strata from south Korea who have seen
things in the north, support us because we are doing the right thing for
the country and the people-the motherland and the nation. At the world
festival of youth and students you should clearly show the excellence
of our art and thus exert good influence on the south Korean youth and
students.
Your efficient art activities at the festival must be buttressed with
the noble qualities of the heroic Korean people and with your strenuous
efforts to bring honour to the country.
You must never forget, not even for one moment, that you represent
the heroic Korean youth who beat down the US imperialists in the
three-year-long Fatherland Liberation War and that you are the
delegates of the industrious, resourceful and civilized Korean people.
You must behave yourselves and set an example in all manners for the
youths from other countries. Since you are going to a capitalist
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country, you must unite and cooperate with each other, live up to the
code of your organization and strictly observe discipline. In this way
you will show in deed the good discipline and order, strong unity and a
high degree of moral qualities of the Korean youth who have received
socialist education.
In addition, you should heighten revolutionary vigilance. Enemies
may manoeuvre to hinder our delegation’s activities at the festival. So
you should be on the alert for possible enemy plots all the time.
In conclusion, I hope you will show the whole world the mettle of
the heroic Korean people at the world festival of youth and students,
and I wish you a safe journey there and back home.
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LET US GRASP THE MAIN OBJECTIVE
AND CONCENTRATE FORCES ON IT IN
THE SOLUTION OF ALL QUESTIONS
Speech at an Enlarged Meeting of the Party Committee
of the Hwanghae Iron Works
September 4, 1959
During our present visit to the Hwanghae Iron Works we have
acquainted ourselves with production and construction work and with
the living conditions of the workers. We have also participated in the
enlarged meeting of the factory Party committee which lasted for three
days. Yesterday we attended departmental Party committee meetings
of sectional nature, talking with many comrades and exchanging
opinions with them.
This has given us a fairly good understanding of many questions
such as the real state of their Party life, production and construction
and the living conditions of the workers. Of course, we could have
listened to many more opinions and could have formed a better
understanding of the situation, if we had devoted more time and
participated even in sub-departmental Party meetings to talk with
many other comrades. But circumstances did not permit us to stay
longer, and we chose to attend enlarged departmental Party committee
meetings during the day.
In our judgment, the Party committee, its organizations and all its
members, and all officials, workers, technicians and office employees
of the Hwanghae Iron Works have exerted all their efforts to
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implement the directives of the Party Central Committee and the state
plan by steadfastly following the policy of the Party Central
Committee. Thus they have achieved a lot of success.
We were here on May Day last year and it is more than a year since
then. You have done a great deal of work in this time.
Big strides have been made in production, before all else. Much
construction work has also been done. The blast furnace and coke oven
which started operations on May Day last year are now working on a
normal basis. Another coke oven is under construction, and the
foundations for blast furnace No. 2 have already been laid. Although
the construction of the converter shop has not been finished, the laying
of its foundations is near completion; and many other things have been
built as well.
Last year the steel shop had only three open-hearth furnaces,
leaving a lot of space empty. But now it has six furnaces of this kind
working, including the mixer. In other words, their number has been
doubled in the meantime. The ingot shop, too, has been greatly
enlarged, the large-size rolling equipment has undergone maintenance,
and the plate and sheet steel shops are near completion. In the matter of
transport, the hauling tracks within the factory premises have been
improved, and many other difficult problems resolved. As for housing
construction, large hostels and many dwelling houses have been built.
Along with this success in production and construction, there has
been a considerable improvement in the livelihood of the workers.
With its working force nearing 17,000, this factory has already been
developed into a major industrial centre of our country. In fact, it is
justifiable to say that the Hwanghae Iron Works is now the industrial
heart of our country.
We can say that the Hwanghae Iron Works is now completely
geared up as an enterprise which is playing a most important role in the
building of socialism in our country. There has been tangible progress
in the technological aspect as well. The fact that all the modem
metallurgical equipment such as open-hearth furnaces, blast furnaces
and coke ovens have been built with our own hands and are being
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operated by ourselves must be considered to be remarkable progress.
This has amazed the peoples of fraternal countries and other nations.
Having looked around our country, many foreign visitors often ask
us when the Workers’ Party of Korea trained so many cadres capable
of undertaking construction work and managing large enterprises
independently. One can really see that the Hwanghae Iron Works, the
Kangson Steel Plant, the Kim Chaek Iron Works, the Suphung Power
Station, the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory and any other factory or
enterprise one may visit, without exception, are run by our own cadres.
As I said at the commissioning ceremony of the blast furnace at this
factory on May Day last year, it was, indeed, a great success that we
had trained so many technical personnel. Today, we can see that our
technology is much more advanced. The blast furnaces, open-hearth
furnaces, coke ovens and the rolling shops are being operated without
serious accidents, and the skills in the operation of these facilities have
attained a fairly high level. This is what our Party should naturally be
proud of.
We consider that our training of a great number of technical cadres
has resolved the most vital question in laying the foundations for our
future development. If our Party had not opportunely trained enough
technical personnel, we would have been unable to build socialism as
quickly as we are doing now.
Today, we have a large number of technical cadres because our
Party has made every effort to train them since immediately after
liberation. With foresight, our Party devoted great efforts to this end
even in the difficult war years. That is also because many cadres have
striven day and night to make continued innovations and continued
advance, have studied diligently and adopted new ideas.
Your success is not limited to this. As we can see, the surroundings
are in such a good shape that not a trace of the war is to be seen. The
town of Songnim is now much better than it was before the war in all
respects. At that time it was only a small village. There was only one
factory then, but now there are virtually four large factories. Songnim
with a modern iron works and rows of high-rise buildings can be called
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an industrial satellite of Pyongyang.
Many cultural facilities have been provided in the town. Not only
primary schools but middle schools, colleges, kindergartens, nursery
schools, drama and film theatres and other educational, cultural and
service establishments have been set up, and cultural life is pretty well
organized. The cultural standard of the factory workers and the
inhabitants has risen considerably.
All this success is the result of the determined struggle you have
waged to implement the economic policy of the Party, united closely
behind its Central Committee.
Your success is tremendous, and our country is extremely proud of
it.
On behalf of the Party Central Committee, I would like to take this
opportunity to express my gratitude to you for the great success you
have achieved by correctly implementing the Party’s policy.
Through the three-day Party meetings, however, we have identified
shortcomings in your work and other things you would have to do
better by being more careful about them in the future. Although your
success is very great, the need for further improvement in your future
work does not allow me to pass over these shortcomings.
Now, 1 would like to speak to you on a few questions, so that you
would quickly correct these shortcomings and improve your work.
1. ON NORMALIZING PRODUCTION
This year’s plan of production is, of course, much greater than last
year’s, and, in fact, it is going to be somewhat difficult to carry it out.
But this is not the question. The point is that production has not yet
been normalized. The graphic presentation of the results of your
productive efforts shows that there is a great deal of fluctuations in
output.
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What does this mean? If likened to a man, it would mean that he is
not a man in a normal state. If a man’s temperature rises and falls, it
would mean that he is not in good health. Likewise, fluctuations in the
output of a factory are an indication that production is not going on as it
should. The abnormal state of production results repeatedly in a steep
rise when production takes an upward spiral, and in a nose dive when it
goes on a downward curve.
Take steel production for example. The daily steel output in March
was above 800 tons, but now it has dropped to 500 tons. The decrease
from 800 tons to 500 tons is a serious question.
If we leave this problem unattended, instead of putting it right, the
downward trend might continue. Even if a rise in production somehow
takes place, it would be very difficult to recover the 800-ton level.
The fluctuations in production are due, without exception, to
definite causes. This time we have paid much attention to this problem
and looked into the causes of these fluctuations in our talks with you
comrades.
The main reason is that the work of industrial management is not
properly organized by the factory Party committee, the leadership of
the factory, shop and departmental Party committees and leading
officials in these bodies. In other words, the cause lies in the fact that
the operator of this factory is not handling the steering wheel correctly.
A driver of a motor vehicle, for instance, turns the wheel to the right
when the car swerves to the left, turns it to the left when the direction
deviates to the right, slows down the speed when the car runs too fast
and vice versa. Only when it is thus regulated and steered properly all
the time, can the car run as it should. Driving a car is not an easy job.
Nor is running a factory, to say nothing of a country. Keeping a
household in good shape is never easy, either.
The factory leadership has not correctly organized the work to
ensure a stable production level. If this work had been organized
efficiently on a regular basis, such serious fluctuations in production
would not have occurred.
What is meant by this organizing work? It means opportunely
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providing raw materials and other requirements for production, getting
machines and equipment regularly inspected and promptly repaired,
and supplying necessary equipment and spare parts in time.
Even if a small nut is loose, it must be located and tightened up
before it is too late; if a bolt is likely to break, it must be promptly
replaced. If you neglect the organization of work in a meticulous
manner, saying, “Never mind, leave them alone”, or “Nothing is
serious. What are you worrying about when we are so busy?”, raw
materials would run out, a bolt would suddenly break off and put the
machine out of order before you are aware of it, and then production
would inevitably drop.
Your foremost task now is to end fluctuation in production and put
it on a normal basis.
You seem to have been indifferent to the instruction I gave to the
Chongjin Steel Plant on my last trip to North Hamgyong Province.
That was an improper attitude. You ought to have accepted as your
own task that part of the instructions, which was applicable to you.
You should have examined the question on your own and implemented
the task. But you did not. According to today’s issue of the Rodong
Sinmun, it seems to me that at the Chongjin Steel Plant they have
completely rectified the shortcomings which were revealed at that
time.
At one time they used to have a strong tendency to undertake
several new projects without paying attention to the effective use of
existing facilities and equipment. In those days there were six
revolving furnaces in all in that plant, and yet they were wholly
occupied with two new furnaces under construction. Devoting all the
capacity of the repair and maintenance shop to the new projects, they
failed to provide the six revolving furnaces with necessary spare parts
in time. In consequence, when a furnace went out of order and they
were busily repairing it, another would come to standstill in the
meantime.
I advised them that it was necessary to make arrangements for the
normal operation of the six existing furnaces before undertaking new
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projects. The Chongjin Steel Plant correctly followed the Party’s
instructions. As a result, the average daily output of a furnace has
reached 80 tons and production has come back to normal state. They
are striving to attain a daily target of 90 to 100 tons for the period
ahead.
Comrade Minister says that the Chongjin Steel Plant has got more
spare parts in stock than any other under the Ministry of Metal
Industry. This means that the Party organization of this factory has
implemented the Party decision in good faith. You have exactly the
same defect that the Chongjin Steel Plant had before.
What has been the result of your inefficient work organization?
Five open-hearth furnaces or six including the mixer are not
producing steel normally. If these furnaces are operated as they should,
a lot of steel would be produced. But you are not providing the
necessary spare parts, nor are you getting the cranes repaired and new
doors supplied. This created many a difficulty for the steel shop, but
bent on building the converter shop, you have failed to make regular
inspections and to effect the necessary repairs to guarantee its normal
operation. You have concentrated exclusively on large-size rolling,
and on the plate and sheet steel shops.
True, you will have to build plate and sheet steel shops. But
maintaining the existing furnaces and normally operating them is more
important than anything else. Hitches in steel production will greatly
hamper the whole process of work. You failed to take this into
consideration.
Since it has directed all its efforts to the plate steel shop, the
workers of the repair and maintenance shop have been unable to
inspect and repair the equipment in time. So it is obvious that
production is not at its normal level.
The cause of this weakness lies, after all, in the officials’
inefficiency in organizing work.
This inefficiency in turn means that the factory leadership,
departmental officials and shop officials do not go to the lower rank s
and are infected with subjectivism. If they had always been amongst
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the masses, listening to their voice, or, in other words, if they had not
been divorced from reality, thus falling victim to subjectivism, they
would have been able to prevent defects in organizing work and would
have instantly known what was going wrong.
Because of this shortcoming in giving guidance, they did not
produce as much steel for the state as they could have done. This is
what you have lost in a steel output in two months: if we take daily
output to be 700 tons, the loss would be equivalent to a two-month
output amounting to 40,000 tons.
You can see what a serious mistake you have made by falling into
subjectivism through your reluctance to go amongst the masses and
hear their opinions. As the old proverb says that a general without an
army is no general, single-handed, you cannot do anything that
requires great strength; you can only act as a general when you consult
the masses and unite their strength. You must go amongst the masses
and attentively hear their suggestions and handle affairs by integrating
their opinions. In this way you would be able to make little
shortcomings and achieve a lot of success.
Another defect in your organizational work is that you are ignorant
of one of the most important principles of revolutionary struggle. To
put it in other words, you do not know how to take the different
conditions into your reckoning and find out the fundamental factor in
all work. This is a great weakness.
The cardinal requisite for victory consists in making a correct
assessment of the balance of forces in all struggles-both in the
revolution and in the effort to harness nature.
In war, for instance, you can work out correct strategy and tactics
only when you make an accurate assessment of the enemy strength and
arms, to say nothing of your own forces.
The same is true of economic work. Only when you make a
reasonable assessment of the available materials, funds and work force
in relation to your task, can you determine the amount of work you can
do in a year.
And then, it is very important to determine the order of priority in
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your work, identify the main objective and concentrate your efforts on
it. If you disperse your forces, you would be unable to succeed in any
undertaking.
Your shortcomings are precisely due to the lack of a full
understanding of these principles. Shackled by subjectivism, you have
failed to make a correct assessment of your forces and to determine the
order of priority in your work, and scattered your efforts over more
than thirty construction projects.
You should have directed your efforts primarily to normalizing
production. By neglecting this task, you have not only hampered
production, but have not been successful in construction. The
converter shop, though its construction is reportedly near completion,
will, in fact, start working in June or July next year. Its construction
could have been put off till next spring.
You had striven to fini s h the construction of blast furnace No. 2
before August 15. Your courage is, of course, commendable, but you
have not reached your objective because you had failed to correctly
take into consideration the supply of material; rather, you created a
great deal of difficulties in other work.
Your preferential tasks were to build houses to make up for the
housing shortage and complete the repair of the open-hearth shop, but
you neglected them and organized a string of projects of secondary
nature. This shows that the factory Party committee has not given
correct guidance in the work.
The factory Party committee should, though belatedly, shift
manpower to housing construction. Needless to say, a hospital is
necessary and so is a palace of workers. But they can wait a little.
Housing construction is urgent.
Of course, it would be very fine, if communism could be built in a
day. But this would be nothing but a subjective desire. In order to build
communism, we must lay the necessary material and technical
foundations and also remould the thinking of people. It is impossible to
do all this in a day. We must distinguish between our ideal and reality.
Unless we transform our reality step by step on the basis of a correct
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assessment of all possibilities, it would be impossible to realize our
ideal. Here, the officials’ guidance is of decisive significance.
I once more emphasize that success in your work depends on
whether or not you make a correct assessment of your strength, rightly
judge the order of priority in work, grasp the main objective and
concentrate your efforts on it. I think you must fully acquire this art of
leadership and work properly next year.
The Party’s basic policy on the economic development next year
has already been clearly pointed out at the enlarged meeting of the
Presidium of the Party Central Committee. Next year we are going to
put stress on building many houses and resolving the problem of
non-staple foodstuffs in order to improve the people’s living standard.
We will, therefore, concentrate our energy on the development of stock
and poultry farming and fishing. Next year in the light industry sector,
they will have to produce plenty of consumer goods of various kinds
for the people by developing local industries further.
We intend to set next year as a year of adjustment and continue to
develop the iron and steel, electric, and coal-mining industries and
railway transport, which are weak links. In this way we will regulate
and readjust the imbalance revealed in some sectors in the course of
our rapid advance to implement the First Five-Year Plan ahead of
schedule. Thus we will consolidate the success achieved in the
implementation of the Five-Year Plan and raise the living standard of
the people and proceed to undertake a new plan. We must resolve all
these problems next year. Otherwise, it would be impossible to move
ahead.
Is our Party’s policy correct? Of course, it is. If one is to capture
another height after the capture of one in a war, one would have to
regroup one’s troops and resupply them with ammunition and
provisions to get them fully ready for a further advance.
This applies much the same to economic construction. We have
achieved a great victory during the Five-Year Plan. We must raise the
working people’s living standard by providing them with enough
non-staple foodstuffs and more houses, reorganize the forces in such a
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way as to bolster up those sectors which are lagging behind, and keep
ahead those branches which need to lead the rest in economic
construction, and get ourselves fully ready for a new “battle”.
In line with this policy you would have to set a correct orientation
for your work next year. You must first of all build more houses and
arrange more service establishments to improve the living conditions
of the workers. You should also supply them better with secondary
food items. With firm resolution, right now you must take measures to
correct the shortcomings in the fields of production and construction.
The existing facilities and equipment must be improved to perfection
for normal operation; in the sector of capital construction, the projects
now in hand should be finished. New projects should not be started.
Finishing those projects which are under way is essential.
You must not start too many projects, but concentrate all your
efforts on the main objective.
What is important in doing this? Iron production is important. Your
energy should be concentrated first on this target so that equipment
would be repaired in time and improved to perfection and spare parts
provided adequately, for normal operation of blast furnaces. The
average daily output of pig iron should be stabilized at 650 tons
initially, and then increased further through strenuous efforts.
Production should never be allowed to soar to 800 tons only to drop to
500 tons and then to 400 tons.
You should attain the target of 650 tons and increase it to 700 tons
and then to 800 tons in such a way as to consolidate the victory which
one has achieved in the conquest of one height and then proceed to
capture a second after making full preparations. If you raise the output
like this, it would never fall again.
The same applies to steel production. As I heard at the Party
meeting of the steel-producing department yesterday, they said they
would normalize the daily steel output at 700 tons. This is an excellent
idea. Some comrades said they could do it at 800 tons. That, of course,
is good.
But you must first produce at least 700 tons regularly. To do this,
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you will have to arrange various necessary things, including cranes.
You must shift wagons to this branch right away, this evening if
possible, as the workers require, and provide them with lorries or
something like that for the hauling of the goods they need.
When steel production is normalized, you should finish the
construction of plate and sheet steel shops, and then proceed to the
construction of new shops and new blast furnaces in earnest. This
seems to be the right order of priority.
You must not become divorced from the masses, but seek to listen
to their suggestions, in organizing the implementation of all these
tasks. While organizing and executing their monthly work, the
manager and workshop leaders should hold a meeting every ten days
with the participation and consultation of the masses. These meetings
should be held to identify shortcomings in the implementation of the
plan during the previous ten-day period and to examine what has not
been done and what has to be done in addition. If you thus check up on
things and settle them in time and solve problems before it is too late
by drawing on the opinion of the masses, nothing would get stuck.
You must consult your subordinates once every ten days without
fail, listen to their requirements and suggestions and comply with their
requests. Even if you discuss matters with the masses and listen to their
opinion, it would also be useless unless you help them to solve their
problems. The point is that you must not only know the demands of the
masses promptly through consultation with them, but also meet their
requirements at the opportune time.
The key to normalizing production lies in bringing leadership closer
to the masses, organizing work on the strength of their opinion and
advancing by holding the steering wheel firmly.
One other thing: it is very important to establish order and
discipline in implementing the state plan. If you are to normalize
production, and carry out the state plan daily, weekly, monthly and
quarterly, the workers, too, must do their jobs well, to say nothing of
the need for efficient organization work on the part of leading officials.
All workers, technicians and office workers must observe discipline
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and order. There must be a tight discipline through which orders,
decisions and directives are implemented thoroughly. Without this,
production would not go smoothly. Since everyone agreed to a
decision, everyone must get down to its implementation in concert.
All operations must be performed correctly in accordance with
prescribed technical regulations.
Furthermore, everyone must have a higher sense of responsibility.
Everyone must fulfil his duties and must always be responsible for his
job. This is one of the most important requisites for the establishment
of order and discipline. The head fumaceman must stick to his post as
such, the workteam leader must fulfil his functions, and the
rank-and-file worker must carry out his duties.
According to what a comrade said yesterday, a crane operator lazed
about for a long while away from his post because it was hot, leaving
his crane to the care of an assistant charger. He hurried back and got
busy with repairs only when the machine had gone out of order. This is
nothing but an expression of indiscipline and disorder. True, the work
is hampered by heat and it is difficult. But these difficulties must be
overcome for the building of socialism and in the cause of revolution,
must they not?
Because not everyone sticks to his post, carefully checking up on
the blast furnace with a high sense of responsibility at all times, one
breakdown would be followed by another. Even if a single man
neglects his duty when everyone else is doing his bit, time would be
wasted and accidents would occur, greatly hampering the whole
process of production.
You should strive to tighten order and discipline, so that everyone
fulfils his duties, standing firmly at his post, works in accordance with
technical regulations and observes standard operation procedures.
Furthermore, you must acquire the revolutionary trait: you must
boldly discard the old and adopt the new, give up passivity and
conservatism and always be active and make continuous progress and
ceaseless innovations.
Our Party is determinedly opposed to mysticism about technology. It
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requires that everyone should be able to operate a blast furnace and work
a coke oven and that everyone should learn new technology. Recruits in
particular must zealously learn technical skills.
All the workers of the iron works and particularly the freshmen
must have a high sense of honour about their jobs. Thi s is also
important. The discharged soldiers considered it most honourable in
the past to fight, at the risk of their lives, to defeat the enemy at the
front for the sake of the country and the people. Now their greatest
service to the country and the people and their greatest honour consist
in engaging in iron and steel production and increasing the output of
pig iron and steel.
Every worker must devote all his talent and energy to building up
the iron and steel industry with a strong sense of responsibility, a high
degree of revolutionary spirit and a sense of great honour.
2. ON THE QUESTION OF WORKERS’
LIVING STANDARD
I have examined the living conditions of the workers here and
found them much better than before. Their living standard is on the
whole much better than it was in the initial period of postwar
reconstruction, to say nothing of the war years.
The workers’ wages, too, are fairly high. Our wage levels are pretty
high in comparison. There is a little discrepancy in wages for workers
in different sectors and different jobs. It seems to me that a little
adjustment would settle this matter.
What is the question? It is to ensure that the working people are
placed in a position where they would be able to buy whatever
consumer goods they need with that money. Fabrics, for instance, are
now being produced in quantities and the output is expected to increase
further in the future.
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The most important thing to do is to adequately provide them with
foodstuffs, secondary food items in particular. Producing quantities of
subsidiary foodstuffs for the working people is one of the essential
questions confronting our Party.
The Party Central Committee has long been giving serious attention
to this question. Recently its Presidium re-emphasized this question on
a number of occasions and has taken specific measures.
But over here I have found that the Songnim City Party Committee
and People’s Committee, the factory Party committee and also the
factory leadership are giving little attention to the matter of supplying
plenty of secondary food items to the workers.
What does this mean? It means that our leading officials are not
clearly aware whom they are working for and that the people’s
committees are not playing their part as they should as people’s
government bodies.
This state of affairs should not continue. The Songnim City Party
and People’s Committees should immediately organize a cooperative
specialized in the cultivation of vegetables, on the basis of a correct
assessment of the citizens’ demand for this product. After formation, it
must be expanded gradually.
For the present you must first endeavour to supply an adequate
amount of autumn vegetables. While starting now to make good
preparations for vegetables cultivation in order to be able to supply
plenty of spring, summer and autumn vegetables in the coming year,
you must direct your efforts preferentially to the preparation of this
year’s autumn vegetables production. It is important in this regard to
enhance the role of the vegetables cooperative and selling
organizations in particular.
Furthermore, the Songnim City People’s Committee must at once
organize a state-run poultry farm. It is necessary that this farm should
be large enough to keep at least 20,000 hens, each capable of yielding
an egg every day.
Besides, dairy farms should be set up in several cooperatives and a
state-run farm organized to produce plenty of milk. Korean cows, too,
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give good yields. I was told that this iron works has 14 milch cows.
You should take steps to increase this number and form a
comparatively large farm with at least several hundred cows.
There is no other large factory in North Hwanghae Province except
the Hwanghae Iron Works. The provincial Party and people’s
committees should, therefore, take measures for the province to ensure
adequate supply of a variety of secondary food items to this industrial
district. At present, this work is not being done with enough efficiency.
I have inspected the shops over here, and I do not think the supply
of subsidiary foodstuffs is always satisfactory. The figures kept by the
statistical section of the Songnim City People’s Committee say that
370 grammes of vegetables have been supplied daily to each person. If
that is the case, it is fairly good. Of course, 500 to 1,000 grammes per
head would be better, but some 300 grammes is no small amount if that
much was really supplied. The working people, however, do not seem
to have eaten so much.
Referring to the figures of the statistical section of the city people’s
committee alone is not going to provide us with the solution to the
problem. The question does not lie in the figures on the paper, but in
the amount really consumed. The province and the city should take
steps to supply this industrial district with more vegetables, eggs, milk
and meat.
And it would be advisable for the dependents of the workers to set
up a joint stock and poultry farm. Raising chickens, rabbits and fish to
provide the workers with secondary food items is a most urgent task
today.
Whether or not the officials of Party and government bodies and
economic organizations strive to supply non-staple foodstuffs
adequately to workers’ districts and towns is a major criterion which
can be used to gauge their fidelity to the people.
At present, nearly 70 per cent of our working people’s expenses on
foodstuffs is for secondary food items. Rice costs very little, since it is
supplied virtually free.
Supplying plenty of secondary food items to the workers of the
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Hwanghae Iron Works is one of the most important tasks of the Party
Committees of North Hwanghae Province, Songnim and the
Hwanghae Iron Works. I thi nk it would be a good idea to abolish the
existing commercial guidance committee in Songnim and instead set
up a secondary food items supply committee.
The next important thing that must be done to improve the living
standard of the workers is to resolve the housing question and increase
nurseries, kindergartens, laundries, bathhouses, barbers’ shops and
other service and cultural establishments.
We must continue to give profound attention to resolving the
housing problem of the workers. This year, too, we should, of course,
devote as much funds, materials and manpower to housing
construction as possible, but next year in particular housing
construction must be the central task in capital construction.
With the expansion of the factory the workers continue to increase
in number. We must build more houses for them faster.
Demobilized soldiers are flooding our factories. It would be
unreasonable if we fail to provide them with comfortable, married home
lives on their return from the front where they had fought in defence of
the country, overcoming all difficulties for several years. Just as parents
care for their children at home, so the Party committee and leading
officials should show motherly care for the workers and give attention to
their everyday lives. Party organizations and leading officials, on
receiving demobilized soldiers, should provide them with houses so that
they would be able to bring their wives and create a home.
In addition, laundries, bathhouses, barbers’ shops, kindergartens,
schools and hospitals should be built with priority next year. Such
cultural and service establishments should be built in large numbers in
all parts of the country. These establishments are necessary not only
for the promotion of people’s health and their cultural lives but also for
increased production.
We have a great deal of work to do to improve the cultural lives of
the working people. Dwelling houses, streets and factory premises too,
should be kept spick and span at all times.
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The working class ought to play a leading role in the cultural
revolution, too. But, judging from the present state of affairs here, they
cannot be an example for the peasantry in building their lives in a
cultured and sanitary way.
The core force of the working class is living in this part of the
country, including a large number of Workers’ Party members.
Workers’ Party members are the most advanced of all workers. You
must play the vanguard role also in building cultural lives and
developing sanitation. You must launch a widespread campaign for a
cultured and sanitary way of life, while relentlessly combatting
outmoded customs.
Materials should be supplied for the repair of dwelling houses and
other buildings so that people would be able to repair houses in time,
painting them, mending broken doors, plastering walls well, clearing
ditches and paving lanes.
The cultural revolution must start from workers’ districts, but you
are not doing it well. There must be a great change in this regard.
We are now living under the most advanced, socialist system. Our
country has become a socialist industrial-agricultural state with
self-reliant economic foundations. It has attained a fairly high level in
terms of per-capita output of major industrial goods. In the cultural
aspect, however, it is still behind others. This gap must be bridged over
quickly.
The whole country and all the society must get down to the struggle
to promote the cultural life and sanitation, those with physical strength
offering their strength, and those with technical skills contributing
their skills, instead of depending on the efforts of the state alone. You
must get rid of the bad habit of neglecting to repair even your own
houses and to keep such good houses clean, in the hope that someone
else might do it for you.
All people, both as individuals and as factory working forces, must
strive to keep their houses and streets clean. Only then would peasants
come and see and say that the working class who leads the revolution is
excellent, indeed, and that they must follow its example.
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3. ON STRENGTHENING T H E PARTY’S
ORGANIZATIONAL AND POLITICAL WORK
This time, we have participated both in the departmental Party
meetings and the enlarged meeting of the Party committee of the
Hwanghae Iron Works. Our impression of the three-day Party
meetings is that the Party organization of the iron works is very
healthy. The Party organization and all its members here are closely
united behind the Party Central Committee. They are zealously
championing Party policy and vigorously struggling to implement it.
The position of the hard-core elements, too, has been strengthened.
The political level of the Party members is relatively high, their Party
awareness is keen, and many of them have a strong Party spirit.
In the course of the factory’s reconstruction since the armistice, the
Party organization has grown stronger, and its members have been
hardened. Indeed, you are one of our Party’s dependable pillars. We
are very satisfied with this.
In your Party organizational life, however, there are quite a few
shortcomings.
What, then, are these shortcomings?
First of all, there is still a considerable number of Party members
who are lagging behind. There are people who still lack a sense of
responsibility in their work and who idle away their time in dissipation
at a time when the working class and the rest of the people are making
strenuous efforts to build socialism and communism. Some of them get
drunk and do not go to work the following day, and others are only
seeking their own comfort. There are even some Party members who
were cooped up in their houses to sleep in peace with their shoes off,
when the factory was in turmoil because of a flood.
There are people who are passive in work as well as people who
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believe in their experience and persist in old things, and are reluctant to
learn new things and make progress. Some of the intellectuals are not
yet courageous enough to stimulate themselves, shedding sweat
together with the workers, clearing off the debris and working at the
blast furnace. Of course, many of them are working in unison with the
workers, but some still have quite a few shortcomings.
Some people even consider Party organizational life to be
something of a nuisance, regarding Party organizational discipline as a
sort of restraint.
Why did they join the Party if they consider Party life cumbersome?
We did not beg anyone to join, nor did we invite them to join. Our
Party is a voluntary organization of fighters who are totally committed
to the cause of the revolution, for the happiness of the working class
and the rest of the people. Our Party’s discipline is a discipline which
its members observe voluntarily for its own sake and for the
revolution.
Some people are working in an undesirable manner, depending
more on their relatives and friends, rather than believing in the Party
and its members. I am told that a certain Party member and chairman of
a Democratic Youth League organization, when absenting himself
from his job, delegates his authority to a friend of his, not to a Party
member.
Such a practice, though manifest amongst some individual Party
members, must be combatted without compromise. The main thing in
this struggle is to educate them. This is absolutely necessary. They
must be educated both individually and collectively, and given
assignments for their training so that all Party members would become
healthy Party members with a strong Party spirit.
Another shortcoming is formalism in Party work. This weakness is
still a great hindrance to Party work. Even Party meetings are often
held as mere formalities. Such meetings have been allegedly held
many times, but Party members are not well aware of their decisions,
which, accordingly, are not implemented properly. Meetings are
conducted in such a way that fluent reports are followed by speeches
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by predesignated persons; previously-made decisions are then read
out, after which the meetings break up. That is why the Party members
are unable to speak out their minds frankly. Moreover, they cannot
improve their work by demonstrating their initiatives. So it is obvious
that they are not interested in Party life.
We must determinedly oppose formalism in Party work. Only when
this shortcoming is eliminated, would the work of the factory Party
committee and departmental Party committees have effect on its
members. Only then would they be able to discuss and decide on every
item on the agenda effectively in accordance with the will of the
members so that the latter can fully understand and implement the
decisions.
According to our investigation, many people from higher
authorities visit the works, but they do not talk with Party members. So
they have to go back without knowing the actual situation.
We must do away with the perfunctory style in all work of
leadership and go to the Party members and talk with them. We must
explain Party policy and the tasks for its implementation to them, listen
to their opinions, correct erroneous views and adopt good suggestions,
for the improvement of work.
Furthermore, some Party members lack respect for Party authority
and do not work hard to implement its policy.
Party life means the political life of its members. A Party member
ought to have the awareness that he has joined the Party to hew out his
political life, to live as a revolutionary fighter, and that disregarding
Party decisions and neglecting their fulfilment is tantamount to killing
his political life.
A man without political life is a miserable being. Would life be
worth living for a man, if he knows nothing about political affairs, nor
about his country and society but kills the time just eating rice? One
must lead a political life. One must be a man who knows the affairs of
his country, who knows the problems of his society, and then strives
for his country, fights for his people, and struggles to reshape an
outmoded society. We have joined the Party to become such people.
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Party members, therefore, must respect Party decisions and struggle
to carry them out. Some members, however, still do not know clearly
that they are not qualified for Party membership if they do not strive to
implement its decisions.
Improving the Party life of its members is the foremost task.
Through the fulfilment of this task all Party members should be taught
how to love the Party and carry out its decisions with boundless
enthusiasm. They should be staunch fighters who strive through thick
and thin to carry out Party decisions and who do not tolerate
disparaging acts against the Party from any quarter.
Party members should continue to harden their Party spirit.
Hardening Party spirit means striving to be boundlessly loyal to the
Party, carry out its policy, and fighting in defence of the Party and its
Central Committee in any situation. A Party member, whoever he may
be, must work hard to stimulate his Party spirit and thus
uncompromisingly struggle against all unhealthy practices that are
contrary to Party ideology and principles.
Furthermore, Party members must always stand at the head of the
masses in all work and set an example to them in everyday life. If a
member lags behind the masses, how can he be called a Party member?
Party members must at all times stand in the forefront and lead the
masses, teach them, learn from them, and organize and mobilize them.
Let us proceed. What is important in Party life is to increase the
political awakening of the members. Some of them are weak in their
ability to analyse a problem politically. Mistakes in the work of
smelting or steel making should not be examined merely in such a way
as to attribute their cause to sub-standard spare parts or to the shortage
of equipment or materials; you should be able to see whether or not
people’s work attitudes, their ideological inclination and their
judgment of things are right.
Suppose, for example, the steel output at the Hwanghae Iron Works
is small. If you analyse the cause of this deficiency and tell the masses
what would be its effect on the whole economy and mobilize them to
producing steel, many people would not ignore such a call; they would
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be able to produce much more steel.
Party members, therefore, must always have a high degree of
political awareness so as to be able to analyse all problems from a
political point of view.
The next important thing is to firmly safeguard our achievements in
building socialism.
We have now finished the cooperativization of agriculture in the
countryside and transformed all the urban private commerce and
industries, and this has resulted in the establishment of a socialist
economic system. At present, the point is that we have to consolidate
this system and carry out the technical and cultural revolutions, so as to
build a completely socialist society and further lay the foundations on
which to proceed to communism in the future. This would bring about
the reunification of the country sooner.
The enemies dislike the success we are achieving in socialist
construction. They hate to see the blast furnaces working, the
open-hearth furnaces running, and the coke ovens operating at this iron
works, producing pig iron and steel every day, for the manufacture of
machinery, thus developing the productive forces and improving the
people’s living standard. They are always looking for a chance to
undermine our success in socialist construction. This is because they
know that growth in our economic strength and improvement in our
people’s living standard will facilitate the achievement of the cause of
national reunification.
If our strength and the international revolutionary forces become
stronger, the Yankees would be unable to stay in south Korea for long.
They must withdraw and would find themselves compelled to do so.
How, then, is our country going to be reunified in a peaceful way
after their withdrawal? We can give you a clear answer to this question.
We will tell Syngman Rhee to come to north Korea and conduct
information work freely and in return allow us to do the same in south
Korea. After such information work and reciprocal visits by the people
of one side of the country to the other, we will propose to them to hold
free elections without any interference whatsoever.
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In such a case, our Party would be able to put forward an excellent
platform.
We would say, for example, that we will introduce compulsory
education for the young people as we are doing in the northern half,
that we will teach them gratuitously and provide them with school
uniforms and other school things. Since we have powerful material
foundations, we can put forward such a manifesto.
But Syngman Rhee is not in a position to say this. Lacking funds, he
cannot even speak of compulsory education. In south Korea factories
have been devastated, and they have only a few in operation. But such
factories do not belong to the people but to capitalists. Capitalists are
keen to educate their own children, but are indifferent to the education
of the children of the poor. And the Syngman Rhee “regime” itself
belongs to the landlords and capitalists; consequently it hates to
educate poor people’s children.
Our Party and Government, in contrast, are struggling for the
people. In the north all factories are owned by the people, and the
economy is becoming more prosperous with every passing day. That is
why we in the north are providing free compulsory education and
supplying the pupils and students with school uniforms. If only the
country is reunified, we would d o the same for the youth and children
in south Korea.
Who, then, would the south Korean youths support, our Party or
Syngman Rhee? There is no doubt that they would support our Party.
It goes without saying about the workers. In our northern half the
workers are masters of the country. Our Party has introduced an 8-hour
workday, social insurance and free medical care for the workers, and is
striving to improve their living standard still further. Our workers are
now free from all worries. The only thing they have to do is to work hard.
The workers in south Korea, however, are ill-clad and going
hungry. So it is obvious that they would support our Party.
As for the peasantry, they make up a vast majority of the south
Korean population, the workers being relatively few in number. What
can we do for the south Korean peasants after the country is reunified?
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First of all, we would confiscate the lands from the landlords and
distribute them to the peasants. And then, for about three years we
would build irrigation works in the fertile land in south Korea and
carry out projects for afforestation and flood control to ward off
damages by drought and flood. Then, crops would flourish and the
peasants would become well-off in a matter of three years. Now that
we have economic foundations, we can undertake irrigation,
afforestation and flood control projects.
We can also afford to exempt the south Korean peasants from paying
the tax in kind for several years. As a result of our Party’s decision taken
earlier this year, the peasants in approximately 30 counties in
mountainous areas are going to be exempted from the payment of the tax
in kind for three consecutive years. When our economy is developed, we
would give the same exemption to the peasants in south Korea. It is
obvious, then, that they would support us.
Flow should we approach the non-comprador capitalists in south
Korea?
In the north we expropriated only the factories of the Japanese
imperialists, comprador capitalists and the collaborators with the
Japanese, not the property of private entrepreneurs and merchants in
general.
The same principle would hold true of south Korea. It is
unnecessary to touch the enteiprises run by non-comprador capitalists.
We would help and guide them to work in the interests of the state,
society and the people. As for their attitude towards socialism, that is
something they themselves would have to judge according to their own
will and their own firsthand experience.
At present, the south Korean non-comprador capitalists are going
bankrupt one after another, because of the plunder and oppression of the
US imperialists. Their only way out lies in the peaceful reunification of
the country, and to this end they would join hands with us.
In short, nearly all the south Korean people would support our
Party. On that account Syngman Rhee is obstinately opposed to
peaceful reunification.
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Comrades, the point is that in the north we should build socialism,
increase our economic power and raise the living standard of the
people quickly. That is the way to accelerate the reunification of the
country.
Our increased economic strength and the improved living standard
of the people would further inspire the people in the south and pose a
great threat to the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique and
bring heavy pressure to bear upon them. For this reason the enemies
are making every desperate effort possible to throw mud at our cause
and undermine our socialist construction.
We should exert all our efforts to defending the achievements of
socialism firmly and accelerating the building of socialism.
You should correct deficiencies in production and the shortcomings
in Party life as soon as possible and next year concentrate your efforts
on effecting a great change in the development of the iron and steel
industry.
You should let every Party member, worker, technician and office
worker know the outcome of what we have discussed with you during
the past several days, so that everyone would be able to strive to
increase production.
As our Party emphasizes, iron is the king of industry. Developing
the iron and steel industry at present is as important as defending
Height 1211 during the war. If you hold out this important position
firmly and exceed the targets of pig iron, steel and structural steel
production, socialism would be built faster in our country.
I believe that all the workers, technicians and office workers of the
Hwanghae Iron Works will carry out their important and honourable
duties in good faith, united closely behind the Central Committee of
our Party, and thus contribute greatly to accelerating socialist
construction and the peaceful reunification of the country.
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MILITANT FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN
THE KOREAN AND CHINESE PEOPLES
Article Carried in the Renmin Ribao on the Occasion
of the 10th Anniversary of the Founding
of the People’s Republic of China
September 26, 1959
The Korean people, together with the 650 million fraternal Chinese
people and the progressive people around the world, take a great
pleasure in welcoming the 10th anniversary of the founding of the
People’s Republic of China.
The victory of the Chinese revolution and the birth of the People’s
Republic of China marked a radical change in the history of China. It
was the greatest international event which demonstrated the
unconquerable vitality of Marxism-Leninism since the Great October
Socialist Revolution. Then, for the first time in their history, the
Chinese people who for a long time had suffered exploitation and
oppression by foreign imperialists and domestic reactionaries, firmly
seized power in their hands under the leadership of the glorious
Communist Party of China and embarked on the road to create a new
life on socialist lines.
That the Chinese people, who account for nearly one fourth of the
world population, freed themselves from the bondage of imperialism
and took up the road to socialism, was a heavy blow to the world
imperialist forces, and greatly increased the strength of the socialist
camp.
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The triumph of revolution in China cut off the biggest link in the
chain of the imperialist colonial system, and had a great impact on the
liberation struggle of the oppressed people of the world.
The defeat of the US imperialists and their stooges, the Jiang Jieshi
clique in the Chinese mainland, turned the Asian situation radically in
favour of peace and socialism. The People’s Republic of China became
a solid bulwark of the liberation struggle of the Eastern people. The
victory of the Chinese revolution opened up a new wide road which the
Asian peoples could use more effectively to emerge on the scene of
world history.
The victory of the Chinese revolution and the establishment of the
People’s Republic of China inspired the Korean people with great
strength and confidence in victory in their struggle for national
freedom, independence and socialism.
The Korean people see a guarantee for their victory in the existence
of their socialist neighbour, China, and also the Soviet Union.
Today, the Korean and Chinese peoples are united firmly as
intimate brothers and are joining all their efforts in their common cause
of peace and socialism.
The two peoples’ friendship and solidarity has long-standing
historical roots and has developed through harsh trials. Their close ties
of friendship date back to a remote past. They have helped each other
in the joint struggle against foreign aggressors. Their militant
friendship was further strengthened, particularly, in the common
struggle against aggression and plunder by the vicious Japanese
imperialists.
The Japanese imperialists first occupied Korea, subjected her
people to a most cruel oppression and plunder, changed the Korean
peninsula into a bridgehead for continental aggression, and then
launched a direct invasion of China.
At the beginning of the 1930’s the Japanese imperialists stretched
their claws of aggression deeper into continental China, and their
plunder and oppression became more violent.
In this context, the joint struggle of the Korean and Chinese peoples
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against Japanese imperialism was drawn closer and developed onto a
higher plane.
The Korean communists organized an Anti-Japanese United Army
with Chinese comrades and launched a widespread armed struggle
against Japanese imperialism, centring around the northern border of
our country and northeast China. In this struggle, the Korean guerrillas
received ardent support and aid from the Chinese people and always
shared their ups and downs.
In the struggle against the aggressors and their lackeys, the peoples
of both countries keenly felt that they were sharing an inseparable
destiny.
This struggle against Japanese imperialism was carried out by the
oppressed masses headed by the working class of both countries under
the red banner of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism.
The patriots of our country derived great strength and courage from the
prosperity and development of the Soviet Union, and despite the
adverse conditions, were convinced of the defeat of imperialists and
the victory of Marxism-Leninism.
The joint struggle had thus continued for a long time until Japanese
imperialism was defeated in 1945, and the brilliant tradition of
internationalist solidarity and cooperation between the Korean and
Chinese peoples was established.
With the liberation of the Korean people from the yoke of Japanese
imperialist colonial rule, and the subsequent victory of the Chinese
revolution, the friendship and solidarity of the two peoples advanced
onto a new plane, and this traditional friendship fully blossomed.
The great vitality of their friendship and solidarity was
marvellously displayed in the Fatherland Liberation War of the Korean
people against the invasion by the US imperialists and the traitorous
Syngman Rhee clique, their stooges.
The fraternal Chinese people, together with other peoples of the
socialist camp, scathingly denounced the invasion of the US
imperialists against the Korean people and expressed firm
international solidarity in support of the struggle of the Korean people.
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In particular, under the banner of resisting the US aggression and
aiding Korea, the Chinese people sent the Volunteers from amongst
their fine sons and daughters to the Korean front at a time when our
people were undergoing the greatest difficulties.
In spite of numerous difficulties immediately after the
establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese people
who had sealed with blood the ties of brotherhood with the Korean
people, stood up in unison to annihilate the common enemy with a firm
resolve to share the same destiny with them. The participation of the
Chinese People’s Volunteers in the war immensely inspired our people
and the People’s Army and turned the tide of war in Korea decisively
in our favour.
In close cooperation, the Korean People’s Army and the Chinese
People’s Volunteers dealt an annihilating blow to the enemies who had
invaded deep into the northern half of Korea, and drove them out of the
whole area of the north. Confronted with the united forces of the
Korean and Chinese peoples, the US imperialists suffered one defeat
after another and were finally brought to their knees and forced to sign
the Armistice Agreement.
The three-year Korean war was one of the fiercest and grimmest
wars in human history. The unrivalled heroism demonstrated by the
Chinese People’s Volunteers in this harsh war and the unbreakable
solidarity between the Korean and Chinese peoples are a living
example of proletarian internationalism.
The Communist Party of China and Comrade Mao Zedong
exhorted their Volunteers to love the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea, the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean people as they do
their own country, their own Party and their own people and to value
highly every single mountain, river, tree and grass in Korea.
The valiant Volunteers, the excellent sons and daughters of the
Chinese people, faithfully implemented the instructions of their Party
and leader and upheld the honour of international fighters whatever the
difficulties.
Hand in hand with the Korean People’s Army, the Chinese People’s
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Volunteers at the Korean front defended all Korean heights and
villages at the risk of their lives as if they were defending their own
country and demonstrated peerless bravery and collective heroism in
the struggle against the enemy. The Hero Huang Jiguang contributed
greatly to the victory in the Korean war by blocking an enemy pillbox
with his body, saying at the last moment of his life, “Enemy bullets
may kill me, but not the dear Korean brothers.”
This patently proves that heroism demonstrated by the Chinese
People’s Volunteers was completely based on the spirit of proletarian
internationalism. With such a spirit every one of the Volunteers
devoted all he could to the battle for the victory of the Korean people.
Over a period lasting two years and nine months of their
participation in the fierce Korean conflict, the Chinese People’s
Volunteers produced many war heroes and units which deserved merit.
The DPRK awarded the title of Hero of the Republic to Huang Jiguang
and Yang Gensi and many other comrades and decorations to a large
number of the Volunteers for their distinguished service.
The officers and men of the Chinese People’s Volunteers provided
an excellent moral example. They helped our peasants in their
ploughing, sowing and harvesting in difficult war conditions. Even
under brutal bombing by US imperialists they saved many lives and a
lot of property of our people in spite of danger and helped a large
number of war victims by giving them what they saved from their
provisions. A noble relationship of warm love, self-sacrifice and
cooperation was established between the officers and men of the
Chinese People’s Volunteers and our people.
The Martyr Luo Shengjiao of the Chinese People’s Volunteers
sacrificed his precious youth by bravely jumping into a hole in the ice
in cold winter to save a drowning Korean child. Pak Jae Gun, a Korean
farmer, gave his life by covering a wounded volunteer with his body in
order to save him from enemy fire. Such examples of fraternal
gallantry were innumerable during the Korean war.
In a movement to resist US aggression and aid Korea, all the
Chinese people zealously helped the embattled Korean people
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materially and spiritually. They sent to the Korean people a huge
amount of provisions and relief and brought up more than 20,000 of
our war oiphans as if they were their own sons and daughters.
The three years of heavy fighting in Korea ended in victory for the
Korean and Chinese peoples.
By supporting with their own lives the just liberation struggle of the
Korean people for freedom and independence, the Chinese people
performed lasting exploits in guaranteeing the historic victory of the
Korean people and contributed greatly to the cause of restoring peace
in Korea and safeguarding peace in the East.
The Chinese People’s Volunteers, in cooperation with the Korean
People’s Army and the Korean people, defeated the invasion of US
imperialists, the ringleader of international reaction, and their
satellites, thus smashing the myth about the “strength” of US
imperialism. This was not only a great triumph for the Korean and
Chinese peoples but also a historic victory for the oppressed and
peace-loving people the world over.
By emerging victorious in the Korean war, the Korean and Chinese
peoples thwarted the aggressive scheme of the US imperialists who
were seeking to provoke a new world war and gave an irreparable blow
to their “power politics”. This immensely encouraged the
national-liberation struggle of the people in the East and the peace
movement of the people over the world.
The US imperialists suffered an ignominious military defeat as well
as shameful political and moral setbacks in the Korean war. The
inhuman barbarity they committed in Korea became a target of hatred
and curse of people the world over. It was considered a concrete proof
of the corruption and misanthropy of moribund imperialism.
The victory in the Korean war won by the peoples of Korea and
China demonstrated to the whole world the superiority of the socialist
system and invincible might of the socialist camp which is united
under the banner of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian
internationalism. The Korean war witnessed an unyielding fighting
spirit and boundless revolutionary energy of the awakened people of
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the socialist new East and clearly showed that the aggressors who
attack the peoples of the socialist camp would inevitably meet a
miserable defeat by the collective counter-offensive of these peoples.
This hardened the faith in victory of the peoples of the socialist
world and made a great contribution to strengthening the unity and
solidarity of the socialist camp.
Brilliant exploits performed by the fraternal Chinese people in the
Korean war against the invasion of the US imperialists will be
remembered for ever in the history of progressive humanity.
Since the armistice, the Chinese People’s Volunteers, together with
our People’s Army, guarded firmly the defence line for peace in our
country and made every effort to convert the ceasefire into a durable
peace. The US imperialists who are entrenched in south Korea and
their lackeys frequently committed provocative acts in gross violation
of the Armistice Agreement, and plotted in every way to undermine
our people’s peaceful efforts to build socialism. The Chinese People’s
Volunteers in cooperation with our People’s Army firmly defended the
peaceful labour of our people from the enemy’s invasion and
strenuously fought to crush the enemy’s provocation and accelerate the
peaceful reunification of Korea.
Besides, they actively helped the Korean people in the difficult
struggle for postwar reconstruction. The valiant Volunteers did
everything in their power, braving all hardships and sacrifices, in order
to ease the sufferings and misfortune of the Korean people and to
create a happy future for them. They regarded the building of Korean
towns and villages as that of their native places and worked heart and
soul to help in the building of a socialist new life in our country.
They built many houses and public buildings and reconstructed
Taedong Bridge in Pyongyang and many other bridges.
They participated in the building of many irrigation works,
reservoirs and river ha nks which are of great significance in the rapid
development of agriculture, and performed great labour exploits.
The Chinese People’s Volunteers, who had shared life and death
with the Korean people for eight years and performed memorable
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feats, withdrew from Korea in 1958 following an agreement to this
effect by the Governments of Korea and China.
By October 1958 the Korean people, with the deep emotion and
indelible memory, had given a hearty send-off to the heroic Chinese
People’s Volunteers, their closest friends.
All the Korean people-men and women, young and old-expressed
their feelings of warm gratitude and respect for the brotherly Chinese
people and their Volunteers. They inscribed in their hearts the brilliant
services performed by the Volunteers and will remember them for
ever.
The withdrawal of the Chinese People’s Volunteers from Korea on
their own initiative had a great bearing on the promotion of the
peaceful reunification of Korea and the relaxation of tension in the
East.
It was an expression of the consistent sincere endeavours of the
Chinese people towards the peaceful solution of the Korean question.
The militant friendship between the peoples of Korea and China,
which was sealed with blood in the protracted struggle against their
common enemy, is now being further developed in their struggle to
build socialism. There is a great vitality in this friendship.
The brotherly Chinese people, as well as the peoples of the Soviet
Union and all other socialist countries, are giving economic and
technical aid to our people.
The Chinese people granted 800 million won (in present currency)
to our people during the most difficult period of our postwar economic
reconstruction, at a time when our national economy was devastated
and our people were destitute because of the war. Our towns and
villages which are springing up with a new look from the debris and
the flourishing lives of our people are associated with this precious aid
from the Chinese people.
The People’s Republic of China is still aiding our country in its
socialist construction. This constitutes a great contribution to speeding
up socialist construction in our country and further improving our
people’s living standard.
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Cooperation between the peoples of Korea and China in socialist
construction is further expanding and developing.
Here the agreement on economic and cultural cooperation signed
between Korea and China in November 1953 is playing a great part. In
accordance with this agreement, our two countries are exchanging, on
an extensive scale, the raw materials and other supplies essential for
socialist construction in both countries, closely cooperating with each
other in developing science and technology, continuously expanding
cultural interchanges and sharing experiences in socialist construction.
The turnover of trade between Korea and China increased to some
17 times during the five postwar years (1954-58). A large-scale
modem hydroelectric power station is being built on the Amnok River
by the joint efforts of the two peoples. The Chinese people are also
supplying the machines and equipment needed in the construction of
the Sinuiju Textile Mill, the Hyesan Paper Mill and other factories as
well as raw materials and other items for the development of our
industry.
As the history of development of the world socialist system shows,
it is of great significance that the brotherly countries share their
experiences in the socialist revolution and construction. The Korean
people are learning from the experiences of the Soviet Union, China
and all other fraternal countries, in socialist construction, and this is a
great encouragement to us.
Both Korea and China were colonialized or semi-colonialized
countries in the past and their economy and culture inherited from the
old society were undeveloped. Our two countries have many common
things in their struggle to build socialism.
Through the mutual exchange of numerous economic missions and
cultural delegations, and through the Party papers and various other
publications and press media, we are widely disseminating information
about all the successes made in socialist construction to our respective
people and sharing each other’s experiences.
The development of such economic and cultural cooperation
further strengthens the friendship and solidarity between the two
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peoples and accelerates the co mm on prosperity of the two countries.
Understanding, trust and love between our two Parties, countries
and peoples have deepened still more through the joint struggle against
aggression, and close cooperation in socialist construction. Our two
peoples are overjoyed over their successes which they consider as their
common victories, and are encouraged by them.
The visit of a Government delegation from the People’s Republic of
China to our country and our Government delegation’s visit to China in
recent years are a vivid demonstration of unbreakable friendship and
solidarity between the two peoples.
This friendship and solidarity represents a new kind of relationship
between genuine peoples, which is particular to the socialist camp. It
stems precisely from their common social systems and thoughts and
the aims of their common struggle. It is the relationship of complete
equality, mutual respect and fraternal cooperation based on the
principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism.
This friendship and solidarity is being consolidated with the
development of the socialist camp and the successful building of
socialism in our two countries. No force can ever break it.
The Korean people set great store by the friendship and solidarity
with the brotherly Chinese people and are making every effort to
develop them further.
Today the peoples of our two countries are strengthening
cooperation with the peoples of all the socialist countries. They are
bringing about an uprecedented upsurge in socialist construction,
further strengthening mutual cooperation.
The brotherly Chinese people under the leadership of the
Communist Party of China and Comrade Mao Zedong are making a
great success in building socialism. Socialist transformation has been
carried out victoriously in towns and rural areas of China and a big leap
forward is taking place in all fields of socialist construction. Industrial
production in China last year increased by nearly 70 per cent, and her
output of grain and other agricultural products was high.
The political and economic power of the People’s Republic of
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China has been strengthened as never before and the material and
cultural standards of the Chinese people further improved.
All the Chinese people are showing a high degree of work
enthusiasm and political zeal in carrying out the technical and cultural
revolutions and in accelerating socialist construction, in accordance
with the general policy of socialist construction proposed by the
Communist Party of China. The People’s Republic of China is rapidly
developing into a powerful socialist state with modem industry and
agriculture, and modem science and culture.
The Korean people, under the guidance of the Workers’ Party of
Korea, reconstructed the devastated national economy in a short
postwar period and are advancing confidently towards the high
pinnacle of socialism. In our country, the socialist relations of
production have held undivided sway in all fields of the national
economy, and exploitation of man by man has been eliminated. The
productive forces are growing by leaps and bounds, and the people’s
living standard is improving further.
During the five years since the end of the war our industrial
production increased by an annual average of 42 per cent and in the
first half of this year it was 75 per cent greater than the figure in the
corresponding period last year. We had already implemented the First
Five-Year Plan in terms of total industrial output value by the end of
June this year, two and a half years ahead of schedule.
By achieving new, greater success in socialist construction we
would transform our country into a developed socialist industrial state
within a short time.
A broad avenue has been opened up for the Korean and Chinese
peoples to eliminate centuries-old backwardness, build socialism
successfully and vigorously advance towards the creation of a
communist society, an ideal of mankind, together with the peoples of
all brotherly countries.
The great upsurge in socialist construction in Korea and China
clearly shows that people who have been freed from exploitation and
oppression and become masters of their destiny, can demonstrate
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inexhaustible creative might in their struggle to build a new life. The
peoples of our two countries who suffered indescribable hardships and
poverty and who were subjected to harsh exploitation and oppression
by foreign aggressors, landlords and capitalists for a long time, are now
utilizing fully their energies and talents, in order to push the position of
their backward countries up to the ranks of advanced countries and
quickly improve their living standard which is worse than that of
others. They are fully convinced of their just cause and its victory. No
force can ever break this revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses or
block their advance.
Successful socialist construction in our two countries and the
strengthening of friendship and solidarity between the two peoples
constitute a great force in driving out the imperialist aggressive forces
from the East for good, maintaining an everlasting peace and ensuring
the victory of socialism.
In spite of the unanimous protest and condemnation of all the
Eastern people and the peace-loving people the world over, the US
imperialists are still occupying the southern half of our country, cruelly
plundering and oppressing the south Korean people and turning south
Korea into a hell of hunger and poverty on earth. By shipping into
south Korea nuclear weapons, guided missiles and various other
new-type weapons, they are turning it into a military base with an aim
to provoke a new war.
Having occupied Taiwan, the US imperialists are committing
aggressive provocations against the Chinese people and keeping the
Taiwan Straits in a state of tension.
Under the circumstances in which the Korean and Chinese peoples
are standing in direct confrontation with their heinous common enemy,
they are making strenuous efforts in all sectors.
We are resolutely continuing our fight against our common enemy
in order to defeat it completely and win freedom and independence for
the people and peace and final victory of socialism in the East.
Premier Zhou Enlai, head of the Government delegation of the
People’s Republic of China, who paid a friendly visit to our country in
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early 1958, declared: “The Chinese people who are always loyal to
their international duty would in the future, too, if necessary, fight
alongside the Korean people to defend the common interests of the two
peoples by all means, just as they did in the past.” Our people, too, are
always determined firmly to fight bravely hand in hand with the
Chinese people, in order to destroy our common enemy.
The brilliant success achieved by the Korean and Chinese peoples
in the struggle for peace and socialism would be unthi nk able without
solidarity and close cooperation amongst the peoples of the socialist
camp. The further strengthening of the militant ties of friendship
between the Korean and Chinese peoples would be a great contribution
to the unbreakable unity of the socialist camp and the strengthening of
its power.
The unity of the socialist camp and its power gets stronger and
becomes more developed with every passing day. Universal peace and
the final victory of socialism are approaching.
The Korean people who are defending peace and socialism in the
East will continue to fight for our common cause under the banner of
Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, with
determination.
355
FOR THE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT
OF LOCAL INDUSTRY
Concluding Speech at the National
Conference of Activists of Local Industry
and Producers’ Cooperatives
October 15, 1959
Comrades,
During the past four days we have reviewed the success achieved
by local industry and the proud victory in the socialist transformation
of private commerce and industry in our country, and discussed in
earnest the tasks of further developing local industry in the future.
This conference is being attended by those who were formerly
engaged in private commerce and industry, those technicians who
worked in these sectors and other former professionals as well as
handicraftsmen. They have got together like a family, with a sense of
honour as builders of socialism, and have unanimously expressed their
determination to intensify the struggle to accelerate the peaceful
reunification of the country and the building of socialism in the
northern half of Korea and to improve the material and cultural
standards of the people.
Indeed, this meeting will be marked as one of historic importance in
our socialist revolution and will be a significant milestone in the
further development of local industry and promotion of socialist
construction.
I would like to offer my warm congratulations to all the participants
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in this conference and all workers of local industry for the great
success achieved by this meeting.
Comrades,
As it has been already stated in detail in the report and unanimously
emphasized by many comrades in their speeches, we have done a
really great and amazing job in a short period of time.
During the period of slightly over a year since the plenary meeting
of the Party Central Committee in June 1958, local factories and
enterprises have increased to over 2,000 in number. This year the
output value of local industry is expected to account for 27.5 per cent
of the total industrial output value of our country. It is also expected to
reach 45.1 per cent of the gross national output value of consumer
goods.
The local factories which have been built in this short period, have
produced a huge volume of essential commodities and have thus
played a considerable part in meeting the demand of the people for
consumer goods. The rapidly developing local industry has added
quite a considerable amount to the state revenue.
As many comrades said in their speeches, innumerable miraculous
innovations and stimulating events, which are beyond oral or written
expression, have been witnessed in the course of this successful
struggle. Such a courageous, heroic struggle is possible only for our
working people, our valiant people who are advancing under the
correct leadership of the Workers’ Party of Korea, closely united
behind the Party and the Government.
In the struggle to develop local industry, the ranks of builders of
socialism have grown and our revolutionary forces have increased.
With the establishment of many new local factories, the dependents of
factory and office workers and many other people have joined the
ra nks of the working class. Former private merchants and
industrialists, too, have now become socialist working people in the
fold of the producers’ cooperatives, a socialist economic form.
Through the struggle to develop local industry, we have set up
many medium- and small-sized factories producing essential
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commodities for the people, in addition to large factories and
enterprises.
As you see, our success is tremendous.
Highly appraising the great success achieved by the workers and
technicians of local industry and the members of the producers’
cooperatives by following the Party’s appeal and decision in this short
period of time, I would like, on behalf of the Central Committee of the
Party and the Government of the Republic, to offer warm thanks to you
comrades, and the rest of the local industry workers and producers’
cooperative members.
Comrades,
We must not rest on our laurels, even though our success is very
great. We have only laid the foundations of local industry. We will
have to develop this industry further on this basis. We must not rein up,
but put spurs to Chollima and make innovations continuously.
Our economy has not yet attained a high level, nor can our people
be regarded as being well-off. We have only laid the foundations to
eliminate the colonial lopsidedness of our economy and ensure its
independent development; we have managed to create the conditions
which will forcefully push forward the development of an independent
national economy. With regard to the people’s living standard, too, we
have just recovered from the war wounds and prepared the conditions
for a richer and happier life in the future. We must, therefore, strive
more vigorously to develop the productive forces of our country
ceaselessly, further strengthen the material and technical foundations
of the national economy and reach the high pinnacle of socialism.
The recent enlarged meeting of the Presidium of the Party Central
Committee decided to establish the system of directing local industry
and to assign many competent officials to this sector by drastically
reducing the staffs of the central bodies, in order to develop quickly the
medium- and small-sized local industries along with the large-scale
centrally-run industries. At present, this decision is being implemented
successfully. These measures taken by the Party will give a great
impetus to the development of local industry. Local industry must
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consolidate the success it has achieved and on this basis it must bring
about a new radical progress.
To this end, the first thing to do is to make an extensive survey of
the sources of raw materials for local industry and establish for it a
long-lasting raw material base.
The workers in local industry should make an active investigation
of the local sources of raw materials and set up its own raw material
supply base, instead of depending exclusively on the waste materials
from the state enterprises and the raw materials allotted by the State
Planning Commission. Local factories and producers’ cooperatives
should make an active use of the rich natural products from our
mountains and seas and, at the same time, secure their own stable raw
material base so that they would always have an adequate supply of
raw materials at their disposal without any hitch in production.
Secondly, local industry must strengthen its technical equipment
and continue to innovate its technology.
Technical innovation is one of the most important tasks today in
building socialism in our country. Our Party has now proposed the task
of completing the technical reconstruction in all sectors of the national
economy in the shortest period of time possible.
What does technical innovation mean for local industry? It means
that the primitive manual equipment is replaced with modem one and
that the industrial workers, technicians and office workers acquire new
technical skills and apply modem methods of production and increase
the output of products.
We cannot allow ourselves to go on with the outdated manual
method of production. Local industry must introduce mechanization
by making technical innovations. It should begin with
semi-mechanization and go ahead gradually to higher stages of
mechanization. It should innovate techniques in this orientation
towards complete mechanization in step with the making of the
necessary conditions rather than try to attain the goal at one go. Even
semi-mechanization is good for a start.
You have just mentioned the technical innovations made in
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different parts of the country, and this is excellent. Such innovations
should be organized and effected without respite everywhere.
If they are to introduce a greater deal of new technology in
production, the local industry workers, technicians and office
employees must mount a more determined struggle to learn new
technology.
Thirdly, the volume and variety of products must be increased and
the quality must also be improved.
These are important tasks confronting local industry at present.
As yet, we do not have enough essential commodities for the
people; many things are wanting. We are not satisfying the people’s
demand for these goods. That is why local industry must definitely
increase its production and the variety of its products.
It must also improve the quality of products. There are still many
difficulties such as low technical levels, inefficient production
equipment and unsatisfactory raw material supply. Anyway, quite a
few of the products from local industry are of low quality and not to the
taste of the people. Local industry must vigorously struggle to improve
the quality of products in line with the policy put forward by the
February Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee and
manufacture durable, serviceable and attractive goods, liked by the
people. Your products are for direct use by our people. So the local
industry workers and technicians should make all their products more
durable, more attractive and more useful just as if they were making
them for their own use.
Fourthly, the local factories and producers’ cooperatives must be
managed more efficiently.
At present, there are a lot of inexperienced management workers in
newly-established local factories and producers’ cooperatives. This is
the cause of much inefficiency in the management of these factories.
The most important thing for the efficient management of a factory
is to introduce the business-accounting system correctly and strive to
make both ends meet. Some of the management workers are even
running their factories without knowing the position of the profit and
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loss account. This shortcoming must be corrected as soon as possible.
They should examine whether their businesses are in the red or not,
whether their incomes and expenditures are balanced. On this basis,
they should ensure that their businesses are financially solvent.
Besides, they should organize work efficiently, raise productivity
and lower the costs systematically. In this way they will manufacture a
lot of cheap and good-quality products.
There should be strict order and discipline in factories. Producers’
cooperatives in particular should strictly observe the socialist principle
of distribution, take good care of communal property and determinedly
combat all practices which lead to wastage.
For this purpose, leading officials should steadily raise their
practical ability.
Fifthly, you must carry out the tasks of cultural revolution.
A major task of the workers of local factories and producers’
cooperative members in the cultural revolution at present is to improve
their cultural standard and the level of their knowledge. Without
raising the working people’s general standard of culture and
knowledge, it would be impossible to develop technology and,
accordingly, to put socialist construction on a higher plane. We must
create the atmosphere where studying would become habitual and see
to it that all the workers of the local factories and producers’
cooperative members acquire the knowledge of a primary or middle
school graduate.
A cultured way of life and production must be established.
At present, some local factories and producers’ cooperatives are
neglecting the work of establishing a cultured way of production. They
must not do so. They should keep their factories clean and tidy and
transform them into modem production units so that all of working
people would be provided with cultured working conditions.
Modem houses should be built gradually to provide the workers
and cooperative members with cultured living conditions. In addition,
clubhouses, theatres and cinema houses should be built by individual
factories themselves or by the joint efforts of several factories. Now
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that a large number of women have taken jobs in the local factories, it
is necessary to gradually build nurseries, kindergartens, laundries,
bathhouses, dining halls and other service and cultural establishments
in accordance with the specific conditions of the factories.
The environment of factories and residential quarters should be
kept clean and necessary sanitary conditions should be adequately
provided.
Workers of local factories and producers’ cooperative members
should not only make innovations in production, but should strive to
acquire the traits of the working class in everyday life.
Sixthly, you should vigorously struggle to eliminate the remnants
of capitalist ideology.
One of the foremost tasks of our Party today is to intensify
ideological education to eliminate capitalist ideas lingering in the
minds of the socialist working people and equip them with the
communist ideology. Our people have long been affected by
feudalistic and corrupt capitalist ideas and customs. Although the
social and economic systems in our country have been reformed on
socialist lines, the ideological consciousness of people has not yet been
completely remoulded accordingly. We should, therefore, strengthen
ideological education and liquidate the remnants of capitalist ideas
from the minds of the working people and inject them with communist
ideology.
All working people should oppose the remnants of bourgeois ideas
expressed in the habit of loafing about, living at the expense of others
and deceiving others for one’s own benefit. On the other hand they
should acquire the excellent working-class ideas of regarding labour as
honourable, taking the lead in all difficult undertakings, building a
decent life independently and promoting cooperation amongst
comrades. They should also combat the inclination to neglect
communal property while only cherishing their own, and develop the
spirit in which they value communal property, love their factories,
their home places, and, furthermore, their country and the socialist
camp. In this way people will be transformed into a new type of men,
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suitable to the changed social and economic systems.
Ideological consciousness is not something that can be transformed
easily in a short period of time. For this reason ideological education to
remould the working people’s thinking should be conducted tirelessly
under the guidance of Party organizations.
By carrying out the previously-mentioned tasks we will further the
development of local industry so that it will develop alongside the
powerful centrally-run industry. We should thus accelerate the
building of socialism in our country and improve the people’s living
standard.
Comrades,
Today the unity of the socialist camp is more solid than ever before,
and the economy, culture and science are rapidly developing in all
socialist countries. Socialism is winning, and capitalism is weakening
with each passing day.
At present, in our country, too, the revolutionary forces are growing
stronger quickly. Our people are living in a flourishing and prosperous
era. Our socialist construction is going on very smoothly.
Let all of us march forward vigorously, without resting on our
laurels, to accelerate socialist construction, united more closely behind
the Central Committee of the Party.
363
DISABLED SOLDIERS WHO SHED THEIR
BLOOD TO DEFEND THE COUNTRY
SHOULD ALSO BE EXEMPLARY
IN SOCIALIST CONSTRUCTION
Speech to Disabled Soldiers Who Attended the National
Conference of Activists of Local Industry
and Producers’ Cooperatives
October 17, 1959
During the war you were not afraid to risk your lives to defend the
country. In the postwar years, despite your infirmity, you successfully
overcame all kinds of difficulties to build factories and organize
producers’ cooperatives, thus contributing to the prosperity of the
country which you defended at the risk of your lives, and to the
reconstruction and development of the national economy. This is a
very commendable deed.
Disabled soldiers have a very strong sense of patriotism and are
firmly determined to defend the Central Committee of our Party.
During the war they shed their blood to defend the country and are now
contributing to the prosperity of the country and the building of
socialism with their valuable labour. This heroic struggle of yours is an
act truly befitting the Red fighters trained by our Workers’ Party.
On this occasion I would first like to ask you not to dampen this
revolutionary spirit but to keep the flower of revolution in bloom.
You shed your blood to safeguard the interests of the country. So
you should now love the homeland more than anybody else and firmly
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defend the Central Committee of our Party and be always exemplary in
implementing its line and policy. You should also be an example both
in social life and in observing state system and discipline.
Socialist transformation has been completed in our towns and
countryside and socialist construction is now progressing rapidly. You
should be more active than anybody else in the endeavours to reach the
high pinnacle of socialism and be exemplary also in defending the
socialist achievement our people have registered under the guidance of
our Party.
The socialist transformation of the private economic sector and the
building of socialism require a sharp class struggle. Even amongst
those who were brave in the struggle against Japanese or US
imperialism, there may be people who falter in the course of the
socialist revolution and the building of socialism. You should always
firmly adhere to the stand of the working class, defend and carry out
the Party’s policy and be ardent champions of the socialist revolution.
You should further stimulate your Party spirit. You fought through
fire and water at the front for the Party and the country. In the same
spirit you should now dedicate everything for the Party and the
revolution and wage an uncompromising struggle against those who
seek to do harm to the Party, whoever they may be.
Now, I would like to emphasize that you disabled soldiers should
always play a primary role in the management of your factories and
enterprises.
It is desirable that, along with disabled soldiers, many of their
family members would be admitted into these factories. However, if
too many other people are admitted into these factories and enterprises,
they could not be called disabled soldiers’ factories or cooperatives
any more. For one thing, the Hamhung Disabled Soldiers’ Essential
Commodities Factory is said to have slightly over 90 disabled soldiers
and 50 ordinary people. This is too much. A certain enterprise in
Pyongyang, though it has officially registered as a disabled soldiers’
cooperative, reportedly has only 15 disabled soldiers and nearly 80
ordinary people. Among the latter there are even some who have the
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habit of impairing the honour of disabled soldiers. It is advisable that
ordinary people admitted into disabled soldiers’ factories and
enterprises should not exceed more than 5 or 6 per cent of the entire
working force. Even so, ordinary workers should be restricted to
technicians’ posts or to do some urgently-needed kind of work. In
future, even these jobs should be gradually taken over by disabled
soldiers and their wives.
Some comrades suggested that a large factory should be operated
by bringing together disabled soldiers; this is unreasonable. It is
convenient to have disabled soldiers’ factories dispersed in different
parts of the country. This makes it possible to manage factories
efficiently by putting to good use local raw material resources. For
example, Unggi abounds in shells. So, if women collect them, it would
be possible to make various kinds of buttons or ornaments and such
items to be supplied to the people. If such factories are concentrated in
Pyongyang, the state would have to supply all their raw materials. As a
result, work would become more difficult. If your factories are
dispersed in different localities, you would find it more convenient not
only in productive work but also for yourselves because you would
receive more social assistance. It would also be good for you to have
close ties with the masses. You can exert good influence upon the
masses by talking to them about your war exploits. People would be
greatly moved and educated when they see you-people who shed their
blood for the country-devotedly taking part in productive work in spite
of your infirmity. Since the state continually builds many large
factories, you do not need to build your own. Of course, we may have
to amalgamate factories in the same locality, which are involved in
similar productive activities. However, it is advisable not to make the
factory too large. The majority of your factories and enterprises have
less than 100 employees. I think this size is very reasonable.
One other thing: you should make active endeavours to mechanize
production processes. To this end, the state should continue to give
assistance, but you yourselves should launch a widespread drive to
make new inventions for mechanization. You should introduce both
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mechanization and automation and in future gradually make sure that
everything comes into operation once the switch is pushed. This would
not only make the work easy but also contribute greatly to the
development of the national economy.
In future you should strive to make yourselves more educated and
cultured, while taking part in productive work as far as your health
allows.
Though disabled soldiers may have difficulty in doing physical
labour because they have lost their arms or legs in the battle, they can
do mental labour as much as they want as long as they have sufficient
knowledge. You should do everything possible to improve your
qualifications so as to become an integral part of the domains of mental
work, such as state administration and economic management. For this
purpose, everyone should study hard while on the job, and when you
reach a certain level, you should go either to the National Economy
University or the Central Party School to obtain better qualifications.
As people who defended the country with their lives, you have no
reason to fail in Party work or state administration. You should never
be disappointed because of your disability. You should launch a
determined struggle against becoming obsessed with the idea that now
that you are disabled, you could not care about anything in this world.
Needless to say, you do not harbour such thought. If you had been
pessimistic, how could you have bravely built factories on the debris of
the war? But I am mentioning this to warn you lest you should become
obsessed with such thoughts.
You fought well to safeguard the freedom and honour of the
country. Now you should make your contribution to transform the
country into a socialist paradise. You should not even for one moment
forget your great pride in serving the country. You should always be
merry and cheerful in your life and work.
Every household should be provided with either a wireless or a
cable radio set to listen to broadcasts, and amateur art circles should be
formed at factories so that cultural activities and entertainment would
start being organized as when you used to serve in the army. The state
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should provide the necessary musical instruments, but you should also
make instruments for yourselves. In this way, you would now also
have a feeling of cheerfulness in your life, just as you enjoyed
merry-making and happy music on the front during the hard-fought
war, playing the musical instruments you yourselves made, such as
flutes and kayagums.
Local Party and government officials should ensure every possible
condition for disabled soldiers to enjoy a full cultural life in a happy
and cheerful atmosphere. However, our provincial, city and county
officials seem to show little interest in the disabled soldiers’ life.
Our officials should be well aware of how today’s happy life has
been won. As I said when I went to Ryanggang Province, there are
some amongst our cadres who have wrong ideas. Certain cadres of
provincial, city and county Party organizations and government bodies
are inclined to forget how the present situation has been brought about.
If anyone thinks that he has been promoted to a cadre and is in a
leading position because he was “bom” to be such, he is grossly
mistaken.
We should be fully aware that our Party could be founded and the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, our glorious homeland, bom
after liberation, because in the bygone days there were fighters who
waged a protracted armed struggle against Japanese imperialism in the
dense forests of Paekdu, braving all sorts of hardships, to free their
country. At the same time, we must be fully aware that our people were
in a position to defend our Party and country and to register victory
because many comrades had shed their blood and sacrificed their lives
in the Fatherland Liberation War. It is entirely thanks to them that our
comrades are now able to work as county Party or people’s committee
chairmen. Had these comrades not shed their blood and fought bravely,
the existence of our Party and our country and the happiness of our
people would be inconceivable. How can those, who do not know this,
work as cadres in Party and government organs? The officials of
provincial, city and county Party and people’s committees should
know this clearly. They should know that today’s happy life is
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attributable entirely to the fact that our revolutionary predecessors shed
their blood and numerous patriotic martyrs and revolutionary
comrades fought valiantly, risking their lives, in the Fatherland
Liberation War.
As a matter of fact, if those who waged a revolutionary struggle in
the past and those who shed their blood in the war only try to live an
idle life without working and by misusing their past record, it would be
no good. We should always oppose such practices. Flowers should
keep in bloom.
Whenever 1 meet those who waged a revolutionary struggle in the
past, I advise them: If the flower was in bloom yesterday, it should
remain so today, too. If you who fought well in the revolutionary
struggle yesterday, do not do so today, it is the same as if yesterday’s
fresh and lovely flower has become dry today. The flower in the house
is only liked and left untouched if it is in bloom all the time. If a flower
in the vase does not come into bloom or if it dries, one would throw it
out. Therefore, our disabled soldiers who shed their blood and kept the
flower of revolution in bloom in the past to defend the country, should
always fight and tirelessly strive with determination to keep this flower
in bloom today and in future for the eternal prosperity of the country.
Meanwhile, those who could not fight like this in the past, should
sincerely respect them and constantly take meticulous care of their
well-being taking into consideration the fact that they are working in
their present post because these people fought and the fact that we can
enjoy today’s happiness because they shed their blood.
Provincial, city and county Party organizations should also give
profound attention to the question of educating disabled soldiers and
the bereaved children of patriotic martyrs. It is difficult as yet to send
all disabled soldiers to the institutes of higher education. But we should
help them so that everyone would be able to study while engaged in
productive work, and gradually send them to Party schools or
universities. In my opinion, it would be a good idea to set up a class for
disabled soldiers at Kim Chaek University of Technology where they
would be given preliminary knowledge in preparation for university
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lectures before being transferred to the faculties. We may set up similar
classes at the Central Party School or provincial cadre-training
schools, and disabled soldiers would be admitted either into
Kim II Sung University or the National Economy University. Every
institute of higher education should set up a class for disabled soldiers,
give them preference in admission and provide them with the
necessary conditions to study science and technology according to
their wishes. Disabled soldiers are now aged 30 or so, so, if they study
hard for some three or four years, all of them would be able to work
creditably at state bodies. We should boldly admit to school all those
disabled soldiers who wish to learn.
In founding the National Economy University, the Party Central
Committee originally intended to admit many disabled soldiers to give
them education. However, things do not go according to plan.
Our Party has directed great attention to the education of the
hardcore elements tested and hardened in the revolutionary struggle.
We set up the National Economy University and military universities
and have given education to many comrades. Those who had waged
guerrilla struggle in the past were re-educated into excellent
intellectuals who are now even able to tackle higher mathematics.
However, as yet, little attention has been given to educating
disabled soldiers. The disabled soldiers shed their blood for the country
as the fighters of our People’s Army, which has the revolutionaries
who waged the guerrilla struggle as its hard core, and inherited the
tradition of this struggle. So, they are fully entitled to be educated at
our universities and colleges. Before anyone else, the road to learning
should be open to these comrades.
I already laid emphasis on this problem when I went to Kilju last
year, but the intention of the Party Central Committee has not been put
into effect yet. Upon their return, provincial Party committee chairmen
should provide disabled soldiers with the necessary conditions to study
and recommend many of them to be admitted into schools at various
levels.
I would like to refer to one other question. You have asked for
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dwelling houses to be built; the provinces would do well to build them.
Disabled soldiers have not been provided yet with dwellings because
the provincial, city and county officials have not given attention to this
problem. We should solve this problem as soon as possible. To this
end, many multi-storey blocks of flats should be built by using factory
funds and also by increasing the state contribution a little. The question
of the labour force needed for this work should be resolved by
mobilizing the local population.
You have asked for lorries; I will see to it that a lorry is delivered to
each disabled soldiers’ factory and cooperative. It is advisable to give
new lorries made at our factory. Good machines that are manufactured
through the “let-each-machine-tool-make-more” movement, should
also be supplied. They should be given first to Ryanggang Province
which has few machine tools.
In addition, cultural facilities such as musical instruments, radios,
loudspeakers, as well as coal should also be supplied.
All provincial, city and county leading officials should directly go
out to disabled soldiers’ factories and quickly solve the problems they
encounter. They should also take meticulous care of dependents of
People’s Army servicemen, families whose members were murdered
by the enemy and the children of the oiphanages.
In consideration of the fact that disabled soldiers have their own
specific conditions, it is advisable to set up a section at the Party
Central Committee responsible for their guidance. Let us also set up a
section responsible for the guidance of disabled soldiers’ factories
within the industrial department of the provincial Party committee.
Good comrades from amongst disabled soldiers should be selected to
be appointed section chiefs and instructors. They should be made to go
directly to the disabled soldiers to explain the Party’s intentions to
them and work with them.
In the past, the factionalists did not take any care of the lives of
disabled soldiers. Before liberation, they created havoc in our
communist movement; after liberation, too, they plotted to undermine
our revolution. They did not follow Party’s instructions, because they
371
always practised duplicity. We can take as an example So Chun Sik,
former chairman of the North Phyongan Provincial Party Committee.
Last year when I met disabled soldiers in Yangsi, I emphatically told
him to take good care of them. However, he did not do anything. We
should continue to strengthen the struggle to do away with the evil
aftereffects of factionalism.
Disabled soldiers should be exemplary in productive work. You
should strive to carry out the tasks decided upon at the current
conference of activists of local industry and producers’ cooperatives
and be exemplary in increasing the variety of products and improving
their quality as well as in keeping the factories in a clean and cultured
way.
You demonstrated unparalleled heroism in the life-and-death
struggle against the enemy and shed your blood to defend the country’s
honour and our revolutionary achievements. Now you should become
a model also in socialist construction and thus justify the Party’s deep
trust and the people’s great expectations.
I wish that on your return to your workplace you will convey what I
have said today and our Party Central Committee’s greetings to all
cooperative members.
372
ON SOME PROBLEMS ARISING
IN ECONOMIC LEADERSHIP
AND CULTURAL REVOLUTION
Speech at an Enlarged Meeting of the Presidium
of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea
October 22, 1959
Our national economy has developed in a remarkable way as a
result of the revolutionary upsurge which has been effected and
maintained through our hard-fought, belt-tightening struggle for
increased production and economization in recent years.
Our industrial output in 1957 was 44 per cent more than in 1956,
and in 1958 the output again increased by 40 per cent over the 1957
figure. Efforts to implement this year’s national economic plan by the
end of the third quarter have led to a 65 per cent growth in industrial
output compared with the same period last year. The results so far
show that there will be around 50 per cent growth in this year’s
industrial output over 1958.
We had carried out the First Five-Year Plan, in terms of total
industrial output value, by the end of the first half of this year, that is, in
only two and a half years. This means that we have achieved a
tremendous success, indeed, the like of which has never been
witnessed in any other countries in the whole world.
With the fulfilment of the First Five-Year Plan under the wise
leadership of our Party, the economic foundations of socialism in our
country have been established more solidly, and our people’s
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livelihood is improving with each passing day.
The people have placed their full trust in our Party as a result of the
facts they themselves witness in their life. Strongly united behind the
Party, they are struggling to carry out the Party’s policy by all means.
The unity within the Party ra nk s in ideology and purpose, and their
solidarity, is stronger than ever before, and the militant power of Party
organizations has increased considerably during their practical
struggle.
As you see, in the revolutionary struggle and construction in recent
years, we have made a remarkable advance which is unprecedented in
our history. And in implementing this year’s national economic plan,
we have also achieved a brilliant success.
In economic construction, however, there have been many
shortcomings which must be corrected in the shortest time possible. A
number of serious shortcomings have been revealed particularly in the
implementation of this year’s national economic plan. Unless these
shortcomings are corrected, it will be impossible to carry out the tasks
of the adjustment period next year.
The main task for the adjustment period is to strengthen the
economic foundations of socialism and rapidly improve the people’s
living standard by revitalizing those branches which are lagging
behind, strengthening the weak sectors, and giving a boost to those
sectors which should be given priority, while improving all other
branches. This will pave the way for next year’s important task, which
is to improve the existing factories well, use them properly, and
intensify operation of machinery and equipment and increase labour
productivity, without undertaking new construction projects.
We should criticize shortcomings and correct them now rather than
wait to do it in the year-end report on the implementation of this year’s
economic plan. Only then will we be able to perform successfully the
task of the adjustment period next year.
Then, what shortcomings were revealed in the implementation of
this year’s national economic plan? In brief, the Party’s policy on food
grain has been followed in an irresponsible manner, and land
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management and manpower administration have both been inefficient.
Food, land management and manpower administration are important in
building socialism. If we continue ignoring them, we will not be able to
avoid failure in the management of the socialist economy. We must,
therefore, learn a serious lesson from the shortcomings in the
implementation of the Party’s policy on food grain, land management
and manpower administration.
The major weakness in the implementation of the Party’s food
policy is that state control over food grain and the efforts for its
economic use were inefficient.
We must have more control on food grain, and continue to intensify
efforts to use it more economically. We are not saying this because we
are short of food, but because we must store food reserves. We must
control food grain and economize on it until we have enough supplies
to spare.
At present some people link the question of improving the people’s
living standard automatically with the abolition of the food-rationing
system. But this will not be an essential measure. Rationed food is
virtually given free to the workers and office employees in our country.
Payment for rationed food amounts to no more than a service fee. It is
better to maintain the rationing system in order to keep the people
always sure of food supplies and to manage the nation’s economic way
of life properly rather than abolish it, which would result in the waste
of food and disrupt efforts to create food reserves. The cadres of the
central institutions and those at the provincial, municipal and county
branches should understand this question properly.
Commercial and all other workers should clearly understand the
Party’s intentions and strive to carry out its food policy.
A shortcoming in land management is that a large area of land has
been left useless or uncultivated.
Our Party has always emphasized the need to use every plot of land
without giving up even an inch of land or leaving it uncultivated. In
recent years, however, some leading officials in charge of agriculture
have not thoroughly implemented the Party’s land policy, with the
375
result that a large area of farmland has been left uncultivated or put out
of use. Party and government bodies at all levels must seriously
examine the shortcomings revealed in land management and take
positive steps to correct them quickly.
We must first take measures to restore some 100,000 hectares of
farmland which have been put out of cultivation. Each province, with
the participation of the leading officials from the central authorities,
should set up a committee to inspect the abandoned farmland and see
to it that it conducts a good survey so that all such land is put under
cultivation again, except totally unproductive fields.
In our country which has limited farmland, every inch of land must
be utilized. We must strongly combat the tendency of allotting too
much land for the construction of factories, building excessively wide
roads, constructing houses in fields, leaving much space between
houses and putting up telephone poles in a disorderly way in fields,
only to waste land. I fully support the suggestion of the Minister of
Communications to integrate the telephone poles of the Ministries of
Communications, Transport, Interior, and of the People’s Army into a
single system. If we do this, we will not only be able to save a large
number of telephone poles and wires, but also obtain more land and
eliminate inconveniences when ploughing, by removing many of the
poles from fields.
We must strive to use land more effectively. In some areas of South
Phyongan Province they are planting a large amount of castor beans
and sunflowers in good fields in the lowland. They should not do this.
Such crops should be planted by the roadside or in uncultivated land at
the foot of mountains, while fertile fields should be left for the
cultivation of grain crops. Agricultural cooperatives should vigorously
struggle to use land more effectively by adopting various methods. In
addition, Party and government bodies should widely disseminate
valuable experience in using land in a sensible way, such as that gained
in Pukchong County, South Hamgyong Province.
Party and government bodies must also launch a campaign
involving all the masses to preserve land so as to prevent it by all
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means from being washed away. They must pay particular attention to
the protection and management of the irrigation works which have
been built with much manpower and money.
It would be advisable to set up a land administration bureau in the
capital and enact a law on land management in order to tighten state
control of land management.
We must quickly correct shortcomings in manpower
administration.
A correct solution to the manpower problem is one of the important
things in ensuring production growth. That is why our Party has always
given deep attention to solving this question correctly. In recent years,
however, state control of manpower administration has weakened,
resulting in an uncontrolled increase in the work force everywhere.
This led to a critical manpower situation in the countryside. We must
improve manpower administration and divert the excessively large
industrial work force to ease the strain on the rural manpower situation.
This will bring about a fresh upswing in agricultural production next
year.
The building and other industries should first adjust their work
forces in such a way as to provide around 30,000 persons for the rural
community. To this end, political work should be vigorously
undertaken to explain the Party’s agrarian policy to the workers so that
they will themselves put up the slogan “To the countryside!” and
volunteer to work in the countryside.
At the same time, an agricultural work force should be fixed. Ri
Party committees should educate the members of the cooperatives to
refrain from leaving the rural community.
Measures are needed to enlist such people in agricultural
production as the dependents of the factory and office workers in urban
areas and workers’ districts and those of the government workers,
teachers, doctors, internal security men and other people who receive
rationed food from the state in rural areas. There is no reason why the
dependents of the factory and office workers should receive food
without working. Their participation in agricultural cooperatives will
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not only help towards easing the strain on the rural manpower situation
and increasing agricultural production, but help them to become
socialist working people and improve their livelihood.
The dependents of the factory and office workers have a great deal
of work to do in agricultural cooperatives. They can take care of the
domestic animals, breed fish and bees and grow fruit trees. Party
organizations at all levels should do organizational and political work
well to enlist these dependents in agricultural work.
This kind of work can be organized in Pyongyang as well. A section
of the workers and office employees now living in the city can be
moved to rural villages together on the outskirts of the city, ensuring
transport services to their workplaces and giving their dependents jobs
in the agricultural cooperatives. This will also be helpful in resolving
the housing problem within the city to a certain extent.
These dependents who take up jobs in the cooperatives should be
given rationed food as before for a definite period.
We must push forward the mechanization of agriculture. Otherwise
it would be impossible to meet the daily growing demand for
manpower. Party organizations at all levels must thoroughly
implement the decision of the June Plenary Meeting of the Party
Central Committee on agricultural mechanization.
When part of the industrial work force is diverted to the
countryside, the rural work force is fixed, the dependents of factory
and office workers are enlisted in agricultural production, and
agricultural mechanization is intensified in this manner, our agriculture
will develop further and produce more grain, meat, eggs and
vegetables.
Centrally-controlled industry must not increase its work force
even by a single man, but reduce non-productive labour in factories
and other enterprises to a minimum. At present, the management
structure in factories and enteiprises has become excessively large,
drawing in it most of the competent technicians. The result is that
these technicians are not involved in production, with less
experienced workers taking their place. This should be promptly
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eliminated by regulating the management structure in such a way as
to reduce its staff and reinstate the experienced technicians and
skilled workers in productive jobs.
Local industry, too, should not increase its work force. Its existing
work force is by no means a small one. Judging from the equipment at
its factories, the way how they are provided with raw materials and
fuel, and their working conditions, there still exist excessive manpower
reserves in this sector.
In the fields of education, literature and art, too, they should not
increase the number of teachers and artists any further, but instead
make them work more efficiently.
We must definitely tighten control on manpower administration. So
far this work has not been under the control of anyone. People’s
government bodies have only provided manpower without making
regular inspection to see how it was being utilized. This has resulted in
the waste of much manpower. From now on, the factories and other
enterprises should be put under strict control so that they will not
capriciously increase the work force even by a single man. When a new
institution is set up, there should be prudent consideration before its
establishment. The management of work norms should also be
improved.
It would be advisable to set up a labour administration bureau in the
capital to improve manpower administration.
We must radically improve economic leadership in order to correct
the shortcomings revealed in the implementation of this year’s national
economic plan and successfully carry out the tasks of the adjustment
period next year.
Inefficient economic leadership is a major cause of the serious
shortcomings in implementing this year’s economic plan. In other
words, these shortcomings are due to the fact that many leadership
workers, so happy and satisfied with their past success, have not
directed the struggle to execute the plan in a responsible way, that they
have neglected the organizational and political work to lead the
working people’s magnificent campaign to attain the high stage of
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socialism, and that the economic departments of Party committees at
different levels have failed to improve their work method in keeping up
with developments.
Then, what should be done to improve economic leadership?
The leadership workers should, first of all, have a greater sense of
responsibility in their work.
It is true that we cannot say that they lack enthusiasm. But many of
them still lack the sense of responsibility in their work.
All leadership officials must regard their jobs as important Party
assignments, and have a strong determination to carry them out in good
faith despite all difficulties and hardships, as well as a great sense of
responsibility to fulfil them without making a single mistake which
would result in a great loss to the Party and state. Many of them,
however, lack such a sense of responsibility, so they are not prudent
enough in work and are prone to become bombastic because they are
happy with some success and get carried away with it. Notable
shortcomings by leadership workers are that they are not firm in their
work attitude, dance to the tune of others, do not study Party policy
deeply, do not make a correct analysis of existing problems and settle
them from a subjective viewpoint without penetrating into the realities
of life. These shortcomings are greatly hampering our march forward.
It is important that they should stand firm in their work posts with
their own conviction, instead of dancing to the tune of others. In
making a decision, they should not rely only on the briefings of their
subordinates, but go to lower units, get to know the actual situation
clearly and handle the matter with prudence. If they are not prudent,
they will end in creating obstacles to policy making by the Party
Central Committee because the latter formulates its policies on the
basis of the reports from the Party organizations at lower echelons and
from the workers in each sector.
The senior officials themselves must always go to lower echelons to
get to know the real situation correctly and also ensure that all their
subordinate officials do the same. At present, some officials are
reluctant to go to lower units, and even when they do this, they do not
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go amongst the masses but hold brief talks with a few cadres and just
take a look around the factory before returning back. It would be
impossible for a man, no matter how clever he is, to get a clear picture
of the situation at a factory by touring it for an hour or two. It is true
that he would be able to spot a few shortcomings during his inspection.
But these would be only a few of the shortcomings that exist at the
factory. There is a difference in the method of going to get a general
point of view of a lower unit and that of deeply studying the situation.
If one is to get to the heart of the situation at a factory, one must talk
not only with the director but also with the men, staying there at least
for a week. One should also hear the opinions of Party members at
Party meetings, and listen to suggestions from innovators at
consultative meetings on production. Only then will one clearly
understand the shortcomings at the factory and the issues on which the
settlement of all problems depends.
The same can be said for leadership in the agricultural sector. If you
drive about, looking at bunches of rice plants, you will be unable to get
the real picture of the situation in the countryside and agricultural
cooperatives. If you want to know the real situation in the countryside,
you must hear the opinions of Party members at Party meetings of
agricultural cooperatives and also the suggestions of cooperative
members.
If you do not do this, it would be impossible to deeply understand
all the complex realities. Officials must decisively correct their
unsettled, slipshod work style that lacks any sense of responsibility and
prudence.
They should also not be reluctant to read documents. Some of them
not only neglect the duty to make a deep study and analysis of
statistics, but do not even study Party literature. Still others do not read
newspapers regularly. Through its paper, the Party informs its
organizations and members at all levels of its policy in different
periods. So the Party paper can be considered as the Party’s written
directives. Leadership officials should carefully read the Party paper
every morning and know what slogans are chosen by the Party, and
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which problems have been emphasized in relation to their work, and
then organize their work accordingly.
Next, leadership officials must do organizational and political work
well.
This is very important at present in leading economic work. The
circumstances now are different from those in 1956 or 1957. In those
years we had many reserves for a rapid development of the national
economy. At that time, productive and technical assignments were low
as factories had just started operating, and considerable amounts of
materials were lying everywhere. So leading officials were able to
obtain and use a relatively large amount of reserves easily just by
making a speech to mobilize the audience ideologically. But we have
no such reserves at present. Now the reserves for the growth of
production depend on the ability of the leadership personnel in charge
of production.
Workers are now ideologically ready to reach any production target
at the call of Party, and their technical levels and skills are much
higher. A competent commander can win a great victory by correctly
organizing and leading this existing force, but an incompetent
commander may fail to do this or waste time and retreat with the same
force still at his disposal.
Leadership ability precisely means organizational ability. In other
words, if applied to military operations, it means the commanders’
ability to lead soldiers; in the context of Party, government and
economic activities, it signifies the officials’ ability to organize
workers.
What is important in organizing work is, as we have emphasized
more than once, to understand the main factors in all work and
concentrate efforts on them.
The most important link in work can rarely be discovered through a
subjective desire. In order to tackle this link one must mix with the
masses, discuss the matter in hand in a serious manner with the masses,
and make a deep study and analysis of the concrete aspects of the
existing situation. This is a basic work method and leadership principle
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followed by the communists.
But our officials are not working in this way. Many of them try to
increase production by augmenting the work force and equipment
rather than improve organizational work. This has led to many serious
shortcomings in the implementation of the Party’s food policy, in
manpower administration, and in agricultural work in particular.
Today the rural community has no manpower to spare. Instead it
needs more manpower from other places. Nevertheless, rural
manpower has been diverted to factories. This has added more
problems to the already difficult rural manpower situation, while, on
the contrary, giving way to surplus industrial manpower, and incurring
various losses, such as the wasting of labour, gradual decrease in
labour productivity and critical housing conditions to the
inconvenience of the workers. Had the leading officials gone to
factories, as they should have done as communists, and had talks with
the workers in earnest, listening to their suggestions, these
shortcomings could have been prevented.
Leading workers should meticulously study and analyse the state of
manpower, equipment, raw materials and other necessities at factories
and other enterprises and, on this basis, decide which tasks should be
carried out first, carefully organize forces and then try to attain set
targets. The guarantee for victory in a battle lies in the commander’s
ability to make a correct estimate of the enemy movements, correctly
judge the balance of forces and, on this basis, direct the main attack at
the enemy’s weakest point, organize his forces accordingly and
command the battle in a skilful way. Had our leadership officials
understood the main factors in their work after the enlarged meeting of
the Presidium of the Party Central Committee last May, and
concentrated their efforts on them, they would not have committed
such serious mistakes in so many sectors, as we see today. They should
not forget this bitter lesson in their future work.
We must correct the shortcomings revealed in this year’s work and
improve organizational work in order to succeed in implementing the
tasks of the adjustment period next year. Since the enlarged meeting of
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the Hwanghae Iron Works Party Committee, organizational work at
Party, government and economic bodies at different levels has been
improving, and this should not be handled as a quick job but should be
continued tirelessly.
There is no set formula for organizational work. The method of
such work should also be replaced in keeping with changing times,
new developments and changes in reality. So the leadership workers
should not rest on their laurels with what they have organized once, but
should go and see for themselves from time to time to acquaint
themselves with the progress in work, search for new important factors
there and solve all problems. In this way they will make continuous
advance.
It is very important to give priority to political work in all activities.
Doing political work properly means strengthening Party work.
Party work is a creative activity among people to heighten the Party
spirit among its membership, awaken the masses to higher political
awareness and mobilize them for the fulfilment of the revolutionary
tasks. No success can be expected in any work unless effective
political work is carried out to give the Party members and the masses
a full understanding of the aim and significance of the task, and the
method and prospect of its performance, and to mobilize them in the
fulfilment of the task in hand.
Producers are the cleverest people in the world. They, and no one
else, are the manufacturers of machinery. So they should be urged to
show enthusiasm and to make creative suggestions. Leading workers
should intensify political work among the producers so that they can
fully express their views, attain good results in their work by
displaying all their creative talents in socialist construction and
determinedly struggle against the tendency to distort or neglect Party
policy in its implementation.
If we are to increase labour productivity in any sectors of the
national economy, we must do political work before anything else and
then organize work to establish working conditions. Suppose labour
productivity has dropped in factories and other enterprises, and this
384
means that their efficiency in production has already weakened. Then
there must certainly be many reasons for this; for instance, the low
spirit of the workers, inadequate working conditions, or even
equipment that is out of order. Anyway there must be a cause. In this
case, ministers, vice-ministers, directors and chief engineers of
factories and enterprises, who are the economic chiefs, must find the
cause of low labour productivity and take effective measures to
increase it.
Some officials, however, still neglect the organizational and
political work which is very important in the revolution, and try to
solve problems through administrative methods and orders. These
people try to carry out their production plans by increasing the work
force and equipment. After this meeting the wrong work method by
which attempts are made to attain production plans by increasing the
work force blindly rather than through organizational and political
work, should be thoroughly corrected.
It is true that equipment and the work force will have to be
increased at some time in future. But for the time being we cannot
afford it.
Next year we must increase production with the existing equipment
and work force, without undertaking new construction work. To this
end, we must take radical measures to use equipment more effectively
and increase labour productivity.
In addition, the economic departments of the Party Central
Committee must improve their work method.
These departments assist the Presidium of the Party Central
Committee. So they should lead and control administrative and
economic organizations from a Party viewpoint, so that the latter will
implement the Party’s policy correctly. They should not, and cannot
take over themselves the administrative and economic functions.
Nevertheless, they are still taking the place of administrative bodies or
tailing behind them. They are fiddling about together with the Cabinet
or economic ministries rather than lead and control them in order to
implement the Party’s policy correctly, so they do not know what is
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good and what is not.
The Agricultural Department of the Party Central Committee was
not aware that the area under cultivation this year had dwindled by
more than 360,000 hectares; they discovered this to their
embarrassment only at harvest time. This department should have
guided the Ministry of Agriculture to plan production strictly in
accordance with the Party’s agrarian policy and should have regularly
made inspections during the implementation of the plan.
The Heavy Industry Department, too, has not functioned properly.
The shortcoming in manpower administration would have been
overcome in time, had this department constantly acquainted itself
with the implementation of the decision of the May Enlarged Meeting
of the Presidium of the Party Central Committee, tightened its control
over the tendency of dispersing efforts and excessively increasing the
work force, and correctly reported on the situation to the Presidium of
the Party Central Committee.
The Party’s economic departments should not take over
administrative and economic functions, but should carefully see
whether the work of administrative and economic organizations is
deviating or not, give a prompt warning against shortcomings, if there
are any, and strive to correct them. From now on, all Party departments
should cease to assume administrative authority, and completely
resettle themselves to doing Party work, in other words to building up
Party ra nks solidly, uniting the broad masses closely behind the Party,
and strengthening leadership and control over work for the
implementation of the Party’s policy.
All the workers of administrative and economic bodies should,
without exception, keep close contact with Party departments and
willingly accept Party leadership and control. They should not regard
Party control as a nuisance or as interference in their work. Every Party
member must live under Party control, regardless of his rank. But some
officials are not in close contact with Party departments and do not
prudently accept the opinions of these departments. This is a very
wrong attitude. Party departments are working in accordance with the
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Party’s intentions, that is, the opinion of the Presidium of the Party
Central Committee. An opinion of a Party department is not the
personal opinion of the chief of that department, but precisely the
opinion of the Party. Therefore, the leading officials of administrative
and economic organizations must respect the opinions of Party
departments and maintain close contact with them. There is the Korean
saying, “You must ask your way even when you know it.” There is no
harm in asking questions and discussing things, no matter how clever
one may be. Doing this is not an inconvenience, nor does it undermine
one’s dignity.
Not only economic ministries but also educational and cultural
institutions, internal security organs, judicial and prosecutors offices,
and the People’s Army must be controlled by the Party. If they do this,
the mistakes and shortcomings in this year’s work can be corrected,
and a remarkable change effected in next year’s work.
In conclusion, I will briefly touch on one or two questions arising in
the cultural revolution.
We must develop a vigorous mass campaign to build our life in a
cultural and hygienic way. At one time in the past, newspapers gave
prominence to this matter, and to this end, extensive political work was
carried out to encourage the masses, but in recent years they have
abandoned efforts. Of course, we made some success in this campaign.
But that was only the beginning.
Our country must become one of the most developed industrial
states and also one of the most civilized countries in Asia. So we must
not rest on our laurels with some success, but should continue to build
our life in a cultural and hygienic way.
Cadres must take the foremost place in the cultural revolution. They
must not only educate their own families well to give an example how
to develop cultural and hygienic practices, but also combat the habit of
neglecting the education of their wives and children, and leaving their
houses untidy.
Schools, railways, theatres, cinema houses and other public
institutions must be taken care of properly, and such institutions should
387
participate actively in the cultural revolution.
Schools in particular must become the centre of the cultural
revolution. They should intensify sanitary and hygienic inspection on
schoolchildren and establish a strict system by which they observe
sanitary and hygienic rules.
One can determine the cultural standard of a country by looking at
the modern amenities and sanitary conditions of its railways. At
present, one can hardly see whether they have started the cultural
revolution or not in the field of railway service. Party organizations in
this sector must explain to all their workers the important role of
railways in the cultural revolution and encourage them to bring about a
radical change in this revolution.
388
ON SOME IMMEDIATE TASKS
IN SOCIALIST ECONOMIC
CONSTRUCTION
Concluding Speech at a Plenary Meeting
of the Central Committee
of the Workers' Party of Korea
December 4, 1959
Comrades,
As a result of comparatively long preparations and efficient
ideological mobilization, this plenary meeting has been very
successful. I think the report and speeches have been well up to Party
standards and correct decisions have been adopted.
I believe that if the Party members and the working people are
inspired by what has been discussed and decided on at this meeting and
if the whole Party gets down to work and thoroughly implements these
decisions, the result would be tremendous.
We must keep up the spirit of continuous progress and ceaseless
innovation and key up the movement for increased production and
economization so that the decisions of this plenary meeting will
prove their great vitality just as the December 1956 Plenary
Meeting sparked off a great upswing in building socialism in our
country.
Although everything has been provided for in the decisions,
today I would like to emphasize once again some issues for you
comrades.
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1. ON THE SHORTCOMINGS IN IMPLEMENTING
THIS YEAR’S PLAN
If we are to build our socialist economy well in the future, we must
correctly assess the experience gained in 1959. This is very important.
As you all know, our success this year is great. The building of
socialism in our country has been going through a period of great
upsurge since the December 1956 Plenary Meeting. Our industrial
production increased by 44 per cent in 1957 and by 40 per cent in 1958,
and a 50 per cent growth over the 1958 figure is expected this year.
Indeed, we are making progress by leaps and bounds. As you see, this
is a year of great victory in the development of our national economy.
Three years of hard-fought struggle resulted in a smooth and rapid
economic development in 1957 and 1958. This year has also been
successful but quite a few shortcomings have appeared in our work.
An unprejudiced review of our experience this year would provide
us with a valuable lesson in building socialism and communism in the
coming years. For this reason a correct analysis of the economic work
in 1959 will have tremendous significance. This work should be
candidly assessed at all Party levels. Both our successful experience
and the shortcomings in our work should be brought to light.
I will not refer to our victorious experience any further because it
has been fully dealt with in the report and the speeches of many
comrades and has also been our frequent topic by now.
My comments will be limited to our present shortcomings and to
their solutions and to several other important economic questions.
Firstly, I would like to refer to planning defects.
It is common knowledge that the socialist economy would not
move even one step forward without a plan. Planned and balanced
development is a major law of the socialist economy. If this economy
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is to be run properly, the planning organization above all else must
work out a correct plan in accordance with this law.
A national economic plan must guarantee a balance between
accumulation and consumption, between the manufacture of
production means and that of consumer goods, between industry and
agriculture, amongst the various industrial branches, and all the other
economic sectors.
The plan must correctly take into consideration the nation’s
productive forces and other objective conditions. If, instead, it is
simply based on an arbitrary desire, it would never work. Of course,
one needs to be ambitious to push forward the economic development.
But such a subjective instinct cannot be the sole basis of one’s plan. In
planning, one must correctly estimate all the objective realities.
As I have stressed more than once at Party and Cabinet meetings, it
is most important to plan according to one’s capability. If a plan is
made to one’s arbitrary desire, it would be as good as a gamble in
which one would be happy to make a superficial success, but be
helpless otherwise. One must plan according to one’s resources by
assessing manpower, materials and funds carefully. This is the way to
work out a feasible plan and guarantee a balanced development of the
national economy.
How, then, was this year’s plan mapped out? It failed to take actual
conditions into consideration properly. Carried away by the great
successes achieved in 1957 and 1958, we set too high a target without
making a meticulous calculation of the objective realities.
The result was that shortcomings began to surface before the plan
had even been in operation for one month. The Party Central
Committee discovered that ministries and management bureaus had
intended to implement the plan by undertaking a great deal of capital
construction and increasing the work force, not by raising the
utilization rate of equipment and labour productivity.
Furthermore, the Party Central Committee made an inspection of
the Chongjin Steel Plant, the Kim Chaek Iron Works, the Chongjin
Spinning Mill, the Aoji Coal Mine and other major industrial
391
enterprises in North Hamgyong Province in March this year, and found
that this shortcoming was serious.
The Party Central Committee, therefore, convened an enlarged
meeting of its Presidium last May, which, with the participation of
factory managers and Party committee chairmen, provincial Party
committee chairmen and other leading officials, adjusted the plan,
criticized the seriousness of the mistake and took measures to rectify
it.
The main thing the meeting emphasized was the need to introduce
methods by which to normalize production, use equipment more
effectively, launch the “let-each-machine-tool-make-more” movement
to produce machines in large numbers, accelerate mechanization and
finish capital construction projects one after another by concentrating
on the main factor, rather than by spreading them out.
This was a correct and explicit policy capable of eliminating the
shortcoming. I asked myself if it was too late to set it to right, but that
was not the case. The discovery of the defect was timely and the
measures were correct.
At the meeting ministers and many other comrades made fervent
speeches, all expressing their resolution to correct this shortcoming
and pursue the Party’s policy.
But the decision of the enlarged meeting of the Presidium has not
been thoroughly implemented. The decision was left unheeded, and its
execution was arbitrary. The Ministry of Metal Industry in particular
went on with the gamble. This ministry persisted in its request for
manpower, and the Cabinet went on complying with its request like a
banker who finances a clumsy gambler.
The Cabinet ought to have made field inspections, examining
closely whether efforts were being directed to the main targets of
capital construction in the spirit of the decision of the enlarged meeting
or were being spread out over many projects, whether they grasped the
significance of the main factor or not, and whether the requested
manpower was really necessary or not. But the Cabinet did not do this.
The minister persisted in his request for manpower without checking
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up his real needs, and the Cabinet gave him as much as he wanted, also,
without examination.
I am taking the Minister of Metal Industry to task not because he is
the only man who made this mistake. The same is true of all other
ministers, though in varying degrees.
In consequence, there has been no change in spite of the enlarged
meeting of the Presidium of the Party Central Committee.
When did they begin feeling the acute pain caused by their mistake?
It was only after the enlarged Party committee meeting of the
Hwanghae Iron Works that they began to realize their mistake, though
not many people become aware of their serious error. Those who have
since then, though belatedly, set their work on the right course have
committed less serious mistakes, but those who have tried to get more
manpower and push on with their old methods, assuming that their die
had been cast, have made much more serious mistakes.
In September we made the necessary changes and since then have
held on to the main objective in our work and achieved a great deal.
Had we not made these changes at that time, steel production, for
instance, would have continued its downward trend till now. But the
bold changes made in September brought production at the Hwanghae
Iron Works back to its upward trend as its Party committee chairman
said in his speech yesterday. The same could be said of the Kangson
Steel Plant.
Had we effected the changes in May, I think we could have
produced 50,000 to 70,000 tons more of steel. Such an additional
volume of steel would have enabled us to undertake more construction,
and the situation in every sector would have been much better.
But nearly all ministries and bureaus did not change their method of
work in May as required by the Party; they carried on construction
everywhere and increased their work force at random. By the end of
September this year the state sector of industry alone had 120,000
workers more than planned.
Where did so many workers come from? From the countryside.
There is no other source.
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A great deal of large-scale construction including irrigation works
has been carried out in the countryside over the past several years.
Further diversion of a large portion of the farming population to
industry, including the building industry, added more difficulties to the
already tense rural manpower situation.
This exceptional swelling of industrial and construction manpower
resulted in a sharp increase in the demand for food grain, secondary
food items and houses, whereas agricultural production and housing
construction became unable to meet the demand. The situation was
serious particularly regarding the supply of meat, vegetables and other
secondary food items for the working people.
We should not set the target of this year’s plan too high, if we want
it to be realistic. If we had planned for a 30 to 40 per cent growth in
industrial production and some five to six per cent increase in
agricultural production, our plan would have been realistic and our
national economy this year would have been developed in a balanced
way.
Next year’s plan has been in the making since September, but
another deviation has appeared. I mean Rightist conservatism. I am not
saying this with the State Planning Commission in mind, but I am
referring to the plans submitted by ministries and bureaus, including
the agrarian and the industrial plan. Quite a few people have assumed
that it would be safer to plan a low target than to set a high objective
which would have been beyond their reach. So they wanted to base
their plans simply on the levels of existing productive forces.
Presumably, this is due also to a misunderstanding of what a planned
economy means. These people are unaware of the basic principle that
the productive forces develop continuously in a socialist society.
We must consider that people’s consciousness develops, their skills
improve, and machinery, too, becomes more efficient steadily. In other
words, an economic plan must take into consideration an uninterrupted
development of the productive forces.
Our plan must not be conservative and passive; it must be
progressive and aggressive. It is not the communist attitude of
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economic management to attempt to sit where you are in an easy-going
manner rather than to try to raise the level of people’s consciousness,
improve their technical levels and skills and also produce more and
better machines so as to develop production continuously.
The capitalist economy develops through recurrent forward and
backward movements, tortuous ups and downs, but the socialist
economy is characterized by its constant progress and unbroken
ascending curve. This law must be the basis of planning.
Planning at random on the basis of one’s subjective desire is not
right, nor is conservative and passive planning.
I would like to emphasize once more that the lesson we have
learned from this year’s experience is that we must eliminate these two
deviations and work out a realistic and aggressive plan by correctly
calculating the objective conditions and our own strength.
Another serious shortcoming in our economic construction this
year is that we have spread our energy on too many projects, instead of
grasping the main objective and concentrating on it.
This is entirely because some of the comrades have not acquired the
Marxist-Leninist method of work.
It is an invariable Marxist-Leninist method of struggle to make a
correct estimate of the balance of forces, identify the main objective
and concentrate one’s energy on it both in the class struggle and in the
effort to harness nature. This must be a fundamental principle for
communists in formulating their strategy and tactics. Identifying the
main objective and concentrating our efforts on it is the strategic and
tactical principle we must adhere to in our political work, economic
affairs, military operations and in all other activities.
Nevertheless, some of our comrades still do not understand this
truth clearly.
This is not a principle we have only expounded recently. We
emphasized it already when we were drawing up the Three-Year Plan
in 1953. At that time our manpower, materials, funds and other
resources were limited, and we often stressed the need to achieve
maximum economic results from capital construction by carrying it out
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on a priority basis, without undertaking too much at a time. If we do
not destroy enemy forces one by one in battle, but disperse our forces
over many targets, now attacking this and now attacking that, we
would be unable to destroy any of them; rather we would be destroyed
by a concentrated enemy attack.
We must not forget this principle in all work. The review of our
economic construction this year shows that ministries were indulged in
spreading out their work here and there despite such a serious Party
warning.
At the Kim Chaek Iron Works, for instance, it was important to
build a converter in order to produce steel more rapidly. So they put up
the slogan for completion of the building of the converter by May Day.
The slogan was excellent.
The Minister of Metal Industry ought to have provided necessary
facilities for the workers to put the slogan into effect. But what did he
do? He launched the building of another converter at the Hwanghae
Iron Works even before the project at the Kim Chaek Iron Works was
completed. Judging from the present state of affairs, this converter can
hardly be put into operation even next year. So it means that the
Hwanghae Iron Works has done an unnecessary project this year. What
a great loss! And that was not all. Still another was started at the
Kangson Steel Plant.
If these dispersed efforts had been concentrated on the Kim Chaek
Iron Works, the resolution of the workers to finish the project by May
Day could have become a reality. Due to such dispersion, however,
none of them was successful. The efforts of the repair and maintenance
shops, too, were all diverted. What is the duty of a repair and
maintenance shop? It is to produce spare parts for the existing
production equipment. That is why this shop is so named. Since too
many capital construction projects were under way, the repair and
maintenance shops were compelled to divert most of their efforts to
producing equipment and machine parts necessary for the new
construction projects rather than concentrate all their efforts on the
performance of their basic duty. In the long run, even working furnaces
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came to a standstill. Open-hearth furnaces stopped working, and gas
generators ceased to run as they should.
The abnormal state of production could not but badly affect
construction as well.
The Ministry of Metal Industry is not the only victim of this folly.
This was a general phenomenon. The Ministry of Light Industry is no
particular exception, nor are the Ministries of Machine and
Coal-Mining Industries.
The Ministry of Machine Industry once spread its energy on more
than 70 capital construction projects. But it brought about a change in
its work right after September and started concentrating on major
targets.
In contrast, the Ministry of Metal Industry did not apply remedies to
its overspread projects situation even after September. So we were
obliged to go out in person and decide which projects should be
continued and which should be dropped.
The Ministry of Coal-Mining Industry organized heading
excavation in many places and was also engrossed in the introduction
of hydraulic mining. This method requires pipes and many other
arrangements. Such materials and manpower should have been
concentrated on the introduction of hydraulic mining at major coal
mines, but instead were widely dispersed in an attempt to introduce it
in all coal mines at one time. The result was that none of these mines
was successful, materials and manpower were wasted and production
was hampered.
They set up what they called enteiprises, trusts, supply service
departments and all sorts of institutions to handle the overspread
capital construction projects. But the lack of necessary materials
produced a large number of idlers. Production stopped and
construction was suspended, and nothing came out of it but waste of
manpower.
After this meeting, you must not repeat this error. From next year
on, you must seize the key to the immediate tasks in all work, both in
production and capital construction, and carry them out by
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concentrating on them. Then you should find out the fundamental link
in the whole chain of new tasks and get down to them. In this way you
would be using the method of finishing tasks one by one.
Still another serious shortcoming in this year’s work is that many of
our comrades did not know clearly the great importance of increasing
labour productivity and failed to take necessary steps to this end.
As everyone knows, manpower is the most important component of
the productive forces. Economists say that the working tool, the object
of work and the man make up the productive forces. In my opinion, the
most essential of them are the tool and the man because these are the
most active and positive factors in production.
With the development of machinery, the techniques and skills of
man who handles it improve. In this way the productive forces,
namely, man’s ability to harness nature, increase. From this it is
evident that man is the basic factor in the productive forces.
The productive forces could be likened to the power of the armed
forces. Just as the object of man’s productive work is nature, so the
object of military conquest is the hostile forces. Thus, aircraft, guns,
warships and other weapons and the man, who uses these weapons in
fighting the enemy, in other words, the men and commanding officers,
constitute the armed power. Here, too, it is beyond dispute that man is
the essence of armed power.
The combat power of an army depends largely on the spiritual state
of the men and commanders, that is, their morale and skill in handling
their weapons. Weapons, however effective, would be useless if the
soldiers are in low fighting spirit and unskilful in their use. If an army
is to win a battle, it must have a high morale, or ideological
consciousness, and a high level of technical skill as well as good
weapons, of course. Ideological awareness, in particular, has decisive
significance. Weapons and technical know-how of soldiers who lack
confidence in victory and fighting spirit would be powerless.
The same applies to the question of labour productivity. Growth in
labour productivity depends on technological progress, better work
organization and many other factors, but in my opinion, the workers’
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technical skills and ideological awareness, especially the latter, should
be major considerations. Unaware of this, many of our officials
consider that the number of men alone would suffice.
What has decisive importance in raising labour productivity is the
noble idea of the workers who are willing to devote all their energies
and talents to the struggle for the country and the people and for their
own good. If they are politically awakened to a high degree, the
workers would strive harder to improve their technical levels and skills
and demonstrate more creativity, enthusiasm and talent to enlist all the
reserves and possibilities for greater productivity.
The great upsurge in production effort brought about by our
working people after the December 1956 Plenary Meeting manifestly
proves that what they called the accepted capacity in the days of
Japanese imperialism cannot stand as an immutable limit, but can be
exceeded several times over as long as the workers strive with
enthusiasm and creativity. It also proves that labour productivity, too,
can be raised much higher. The great upswing in socialist construction
or the Chollima march in our country would be inconceivable without
the high revolutionary enthusiasm of our working people who are
closely united around the Party, who have unlimited faith in the Party
and who are determined to build a new life, following the Party
through all difficulties.
One of the grave mistakes our comrades committed this year is that
they have neglected political work aimed at increasing labour
productivity. Ministers, management bureau chiefs and managers have
not carried out the Party’s policy on giving priority to political work in
economic activity. Instead, they estimated the number of necessary
men, for instance, by simply calculating how many cubic metres of
earth one man could dig a day.
Besides, raising the workers’ ideological level is not all that is
needed in political work to increase labour productivity. Their material
standard of living should be improved, their cultural activity organized
properly, and they should be provided with adequate rest periods.
But quite a few of our officials neglected these duties. They did not
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provide adequate rest periods for their men, but tried to ensure
production simply by increasing the work force, without caring
whether or not the men were properly housed and fed.
However high their communist awareness, you would be unable to
increase their efficiency or labour productivity if their housing
conditions are bad and if their rest periods are not adequate.
Of course, in the days of Japanese imperialism, the capitalists did
not and would not take these things into consideration. They were
totally indifferent to the living conditions of workers; they were just
keen on bleeding them white.
We must not put men to work without building houses for them. We
are not telling you to provide them with particularly good living
conditions. What we want is for our officials to exert all their efforts to
take care of the workers within the possibilities that the Party and the
state can afford. This is important political work.
If you regard this as supply and service work or as a function
exclusively reserved for supply and service workers, you would be
making a great mistake. How could this be other than political work
when the very aim of our struggle is to improve the workers’ living
conditions and bring happiness to them, and when the success in
production depends on the effectiveness of this work?
Supply and service for the workers must come under the category
of political work. These activities are part and parcel of political work.
Whoever wants to be a good political worker must at the same time be
good at supply and service work.
You must have a correct attitude towards man, the most important
factor of the productive forces. I am not sure whether there might be
some change in this concept in the future when everything is automated.
But, even if automation were complete, machinery must be handled by
man anyway. The only difference in that case would be that less
manpower would be required, and work would be easier, than now; but
machines would not be able to run without man. That is why you must
have a correct attitude towards man. If you know this, you would not try
to solve problems only by increasing manpower without prudence.
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A large work force would not be necessary, if the workers’
technical levels and skills are improved so that a man handling one
machine would be able to operate two and then three, and if their
consciousness is increased through efficient political work so that they
would work with greater enthusiasm and creativity.
All these things depend on the ability of the people in command and
on their organizing work. Who, then, are the commanders? They are
such people as ministers, management bureau chiefs, managers and
their deputies including those in charge of political affairs, and the
Party committee chairmen of ministries and factories.
The foremost duty of commanders is to provide decent living
conditions to their men so that they would be able to rest and eat their
fill. Their next duty is to ensure that equipment, materials and all other
working conditions for the men are the best in the circumstances.
When a machine goes out of order, they must take steps to repair it
immediately.
There is no reason why their work should get stuck, as long as our
ministers, management bureau chiefs and managers guarantee good
working conditions through an efficient organization of work. We
have provided nothing to the open-hearth furnaces of the Hwanghae
Iron Works. We only got the repair and maintenance shop to produce
spare parts for them. Since then the steel output has risen, hasn’t it?
Commanding officers must also keep their men informed about
Party policy, and properly educate them to work enthusiastically in
accordance with this policy.
As you see, normal production and the growth of labour
productivity depend not only on the workers, but more importantly on
the ability and work organization of the people in command who are
duty bound to guarantee good working conditions and to direct their
men. Why do we need managers? Because work has to be organized
and directed by them. If they do not do this work, they would be
useless.
The main thing is that the commanding personnel conduct political
work well and increase the workers’ political consciousness so that
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they will work enthusiastically; and then they must guarantee
sufficient equipment, spare parts, raw materials and other necessary
working conditions, and also take care of the workers’ living
conditions all the time and get them to settle down. Then, there will be
no reason why labour productivity would fail to rise.
Our failure to implement a part of this year’s amended plan is not
due, on any account, to the workers. It is entirely due to the fact that
leading officials have not conducted political and organizing work as
they should. So it boils down first to political work, and second to
organizing work.
Another serious shortcoming revealed in implementing this year’s
plan is that officials lack the spirit of being obedient to the Party’s
decisions and directives without reservations.
Already in January this year when the plan was under discussion,
the Presidium of the Party Central Committee emphasized more than
once that the work force must never be allowed to swell over and
above the planned figure, that the recruitment of even a single man
must be proceeded by a careful examination of the manpower
situation, and that only he who organizes labour skilfully would be
considered as a competent organizer. In spite of such a great emphasis
made by the Party Central Committee, our officials did not implement
the instruction of the Party because they lacked the spirit of
unconditional obedience.
Later in May, at the enlarged meeting of the Presidium of the Party
Central Committee, we again stressed that rather than spreading our
energy on extensive capital construction, we should tackle the main
tasks ahead of us. But the Ministries of Metal and Chemical Industries
remained lukewarm to the Party decision and did not show the correct
attitudes to implement it, come what may.
The Party’s directives must be obeyed without reservations, and its
decisions should be observed as a matter of duty, under whatever
circumstances.
One of the main reasons for the failure of the Ministry of Metal
Industry to implement Party policy successfully is that they did not
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inform the people at lower levels about the decision of the Presidium of
the Party Central Committee, and the decisions of the Party Central
Committee. This time, the Party Central Committee directly inspected
this ministry and called a meeting of its Party committee, where we
examined the matter. There, people in lower ra nks said: “We did not
know that the state is so hard pressed for manpower. Otherwise, why
would we have requested additional workers?”
All this explains that the leading officials in this ministry lacked
willingness to obey Party decisions and instructions, and consequently
failed to explain them to their subordinates. Such officials will be
unable to fight on the tense front of economic construction as it is
today.
In a nutshell, these are the shortcomings that were revealed this
year.
All these defects in economic construction are serious. But they are
transitional and local weaknesses that appeared in the course of
attaining a great victory, and they can be corrected without difficulty.
We must learn a serious lesson from our mistakes, correct them
quickly and prevent the recurrence of similar shortcomings.
2. ON MAJOR ISSUES IN THE 1960 PLAN FOR THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY
As it is pointed out in the resolution, we set 1960 as a period of
adjustment of our economic development and decided on embarking
upon a one-year plan next year.
What is meant by a period of adjustment?
Similar to a war, it is something like a period of preparing for a new
battle to capture another hill after the conquest of a height-a period
when casualties are replaced; expended rations, clothes, weapons,
ammunition, and similar things are resupplied; combat forces are
403
reinforced and regrouped; and the positions which have been seized
are consolidated.
In socialist construction, too, the success which has been achieved
must be consolidated, and preparations made for the successful
implementation of a new task after the major task at a given stage of
economic development has been fulfilled and when progress is made
to the next stage. Such a period of preparation is indispensable for us
particularly because, through a hard-fought struggle over the past
several years, we have developed the economy by leaps and bounds
and carried out the First Five-Year Plan more than two years ahead of
schedule.
The industrial sector has already reached the objective of the
Five-Year Plan by this year, in terms of its output value, though not on
all indices.
As a result of the realization of the Five-Year Plan, our country has
eliminated the colonial lopsidedness of our industry, laid the
foundations for an independent national economy, and prepared a solid
basis for socialist industrialization. The bases of light industry,
non-existent in the past, have been established, and great progress, too,
has been made in agriculture.
We have excellently carried out the groundwork for further
progress. In other words, we have built the foundations on which to
carry out an all-out technical revolution in our country.
All this is a great victory which our people have achieved under the
guidance of our Party. This means the victory of our Party policy to
give priority to the development of heavy industry while advancing
light industry and agriculture simultaneously. It shows the correctness
of our Party’s leadership in the implementation of its economic policy.
In this way, we have attained the objective of laying the foundations
for the building of socialism, that is, the target of the First Five-Year
Plan.
Well, what is our next objective? It is to give greater momentum to
socialist construction and develop our country into a socialist industrial
state, which is a still higher objective. This new objective is indicated
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precisely by the Second Five-Year Plan which is to start in 1961. This
plan will mark the decisive period in building socialism, during which
we must make history-making progress in our socialist
industrialization and further raise the people’s living standard.
Next year is a year when preparations are expected to be made to
advance from the height of the First Five-Year Plan to a new higher
pinnacle. That is why we have called it a period of adjustment.
What preparations, then, should we make next year?
Only recently opinions were divergent on this matter. Comrades
from the electric industry argued that this industry must be given
priority to reach the new target; those from the railways asserted that
electric railways should be introduced to secure this objective; the
Ministry of Metal Industry insisted on increasing steel production to
attain this target with success; and the Minister of Agriculture claimed
that more construction of irrigation works and increased grain
production would resolve all problems. In this manner everyone
wanted to use the adjustment period to their own advantage.
Admittedly, we cannot say that this is a wrong tendency. This is all
prompted by their desire to do a good job.
But, if everybody wants to be given priority, we would be unable to
set the main direction of economic development next year.
Preparations during the adjustment period should be made in all
sectors, but the central tasks must be identified.
What, then, are the central tasks in this period? To ease the strain
which was notable in some economic sectors in the past, particularly
in the realization of this year’s plan, to strengthen weak links, and to
raise the people’s living standard-these are the central tasks for next
year.
This is the only way to eliminate local imbalance and shortcomings
revealed in the very rapid development of the national economy,
consolidate the success of the First Five-Year Plan, and bring about a
fresh upswing in building socialism in the period covered by the next
plan.
Within this basic orientation, we have defined the problems which
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must be resolved on a priority basis in next year’s economic
construction.
I would like to refer to the most important of them.
Before everything else, we must direct efforts to the mechanization
of agriculture next year.
This plenary meeting decided on pushing on with the
mechanization of agriculture as the most pressing task in this sector.
Needless to say, this is a correct decision.
This decision does not imply at all that there is any change in Party
policy. Mechanizing agriculture conforms with the Party’s basic policy
which gives the preference to the growth of heavy industry and the
simultaneous development of light industry and agriculture; it means
pushing the existing Party policy forward.
We are not developing heavy industry with priority for its own
sake.
The aim of developing heavy industry, after all, is to supply
machinery and equipment, power and fuel to all branches of the
national economy, thus developing the productive forces further.
If we want to develop our productive forces further, the agricultural
productive forces in particular, we should mechanize agriculture.
The groundwork for agricultural mechanization has now been laid.
Without this groundwork, without the foundations of heavy industry,
the mechanization of agriculture would be a mere daydream and would
remain an unattainable desire. But we have built the basis of heavy
industry and expanded its heart, the machine-building industry, by
implementing the Three-Year Plan and the First Five-Year Plan. In
particular, the “let-each-machine-tool-make-more” movement we
have launched this year has moved our machine industry one major
step forward. This has created solid material foundation for equipping
our national economy with modem machinery and technical means
and developing the productive forces further. For this reason, rural
mechanization is now fully possible and feasible.
Besides, agricultural mechanization is an objective demand of the
law governing social and economic development in our country.
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As you know, the transformation of production relations on
socialist lines was already successfully completed by 1958. The
National Congress of Agricultural Cooperatives which was held early
this year, put forward the technical revolution as the foremost task of
agriculture after the socialist economy becomes completely dominant
in our countryside.
In fact, agriculture cannot be considered as a completely socialist
economy simply because production relations have been reorganized
on socialist lines. To be so, it must undergo the technical revolution.
Only in that case would we be able to further develop the triumphant
socialist relations of production and consolidate them in the
countryside.
True, the cooperative economy, even without the introduction of
mechanical operation, is superior to the unorganized individual
economy, since in the former all the work is done collectively. But
unless technical reconstruction is effected, it would be impossible to
develop the agricultural productive forces and improve the living
standard of the farmers. So the rural technical revolution is imperative
in order to show the full advantages of the cooperative economy.
For the socialist transformation of agriculture, we also pushed
ahead vigorously with the technical reconstruction of agriculture in
step with the rapid development of the cooperativization movement.
We took up irrigation as a primary task of the rural technical
revolution. This was much easier and faster because, under the
conditions of the cooperative economy, unlike at the time of private
farming, we could draw on collective efforts.
If I remember correctly, it was in 1955 that we got down to irrigation
construction in real earnest. At that time our machine-building industry
was still young and underdeveloped. Nevertheless, we made pumps and
electric motors by utilizing all our efforts, and also imported some
equipment and materials from other countries. In this way we built
irrigation works zealously.
As you see, we have registered a great and difficult achievement in
this field. We have built irrigation works wherever possible. Of course,
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there is still the need for more such projects. But we can go on building
them gradually.
We have thus introduced irrigation, changed our countryside into
one which is free from drought and flood damages and assured of rich
crops at all times, and increased crop yields. We have also made a great
success in extending electricity to the rural communities. But this alone
is not enough to convince us that the agricultural productive forces are
fully developed.
If we are to increase these forces radically, we must introduce
mechanization. This would enable our agricultural cooperatives to
become a truly powerful socialist economy, increase production
further, and help the farmers to become better off.
Mechanization is also necessary to keep our agriculture abreast
with the fast developing industry, that is, to ensure a balanced
development of the two. We can say that our industrial productive
forces have attained a very high level. Should agriculture go on using
primitive backward techniques when industry is quickly advancing on
the basis of modem technology, the former would be unable to meet
the demands of the latter, however hard it may try.
Should agriculture fail to meet the demands of industry, it would be
impossible for us to carry out the Party’s policy of giving priority to the
development of heavy industry and advancing light industry at the
same time. If our stock farming fails to supply enough meat, furs, wool
and other raw materials, light industry would be unable to process
meat, make leather shoes and weave woolen fabrics. The same is true
of the raw materials and grain which are obtained from crop
cultivation. If grain supply is short, many factory and office workers
and their dependents would starve.
Industry, agriculture, and all other branches of the national
economy are thus closely related to one another.
If our industry is to move another step forward, agriculture must
catch up with industry and meet the industrial demands for raw
materials and grain. With the present backward techniques, however,
agriculture would be absolutely incapable of these tasks. This problem
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can be resolved only when agriculture is mechanized and its
productive forces reach a higher stage of development.
We must, therefore, mechanize agriculture in order to keep it
abreast with the rapidly developing industry, and ensure a balanced
development of both branches.
Another thing you, comrades, must understand is that
mechanization is necessary also for the remoulding of the
consciousness of the farmers.
The completion of cooperativization does not mean that farmers
have completely become socialist farmers. True, it is a great revolution
that, as a result of the cooperativization of private farming, the rich
farmers have disappeared and exploitation has been eliminated.
But the remnants of outdated ideas still linger in the minds of the
people. To eliminate the remaining influence of feudal and capitalist
ideas from the minds of farmers and to implant progressive socialism
into their consciousness is of great significance in the development of
agricultural productive forces and the consolidation of the cooperative
economy. As I have already mentioned, the productive forces consist
of machinery and men, of which the latter is the most important.
Transforming farmers’ ideological consciousness, therefore, has a
great effect on the development of agricultural productive forces.
What, then, is necessary for a rapid remoulding of their
consciousness? Here, too, machines are needed. It would be
unreasonable to try to reform their consciousness on socialist lines
while leaving them to work with obsolete tools from the feudal age.
Development of production begins with the change of tools, and the
working people’s consciousness is determined, in the final analysis, on
how they engage themselves in production. So, if we are to reshape
their consciousness quickly and transform them completely into
socialist farmers, we must mechanize agriculture and develop its
productive forces further.
Comrades, today no one has any doubts about the need to
mechanize agriculture; everyone thinks it is necessary. Nonetheless, I
emphasize this matter again because I deem it necessary for all
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comrades to understand clearly that the mechanization of the rural
economy is an urgent requisite of socialist construction in our
country.
You must not regard this task we are now going to undertake, as a
mere project aimed at easing the present strain on the rural manpower
situation. This is an inevitable task in the development of our
agriculture on socialist lines; it is a historic challenge that we must
meet in order to attain a higher level of socialist construction.
As for the specific policy on mechanization, we must reckon with
the fact that our machine industry is not yet too highly developed; so
we are going to tackle it step by step. As the resolution says, we should
perform this task through combined use of power- and animal-driven
machines, through simultaneous introduction of modem- and
semi-mechanization, and by starting it in the lowlands and extending it
gradually to the highlands. This is an absolutely correct policy. Why
are we going to begin with the plain areas? That is because in such
areas mechanization is relatively easier and faster. Flat areas generally
can cope with mechanized operations without the need for a lot of land
rezoning. There we can use plenty of machines similar to those now in
use in developed countries. In contrast, mechanization in mountainous
areas would require extensive rezoning and the manufacture of new
machines suitable to our topographical conditions. Meeting such
requirements would need a certain period of time.
So we are going to begin with the plains, amongst them. South
Phyongan Province and South Hwanghae Province where irrigation is
most widespread and crop yields are highest, and then extend the
project by degrees.
Recently I inspected some areas in South Hwanghae Province, and
found that not many machines are needed there. Some 2,500 tractors
would probably be enough to introduce mechanized farming in the
main in this province. Mechanized operations in some 80 per cent of
the farmland would virtually complete the task in the province. The
remaining area will also have to undergo mechanization at some time
in the future when smaller power-driven machines are manufactured
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and supplied, but for the time being semi-mechanization should be
introduced, priority given to mechanizing 80 to 85 per cent of
farmland, and that will do.
The situation in South Phyongan Province is similar. Here, too,
2,500 to 2,600 tractors would likely be enough to do the job. So we
estimate that the needs of the two provinces add up to 5,000-odd
tractors.
Our slogan is to finish mechanization in South Hwanghae and
South Phyongan Provinces in two years, which is somewhat a liberal
estimate. If we get down to it and work efficiently, we shall be able to
do quite a lot of it next year.
We will produce 3,000 tractors by ourselves and import some 1,000
others from fraternal countries. In this way we would be able to supply
nearly 4,000. Approximately, there are already 900 tractors in South
Hwanghae Province, and 700 in South Phyongan Province. That will
add up to between 5,500 and 5,600 in all. Such an amount will enable
us to mechanize farming in South Hwanghae and South Phyongan
Provinces and even in Pyongyang next year.
And then, in 1961 we will be able to proceed to Kaesong, North
Hwanghae, North Phyongan, Kangwon, and South Hamgyong
Provinces almost at the same time. Other districts such as the
mountainous Jagang, Ryanggang, and North Hamgyong Provinces
will be probably tackled a few years later.
If we properly mobilize the creativity and talents of the broad
sections of the masses, with the effective use of the machine tools
produced through the “let-each-machine-tool-make-more” movement,
we shall be able to manufacture a lot of different farming machines
everywhere and produce excellent new machines suitable to our
specific conditions. Such a vigorous, popular movement for rural
mechanization will complete the task earlier.
The manufacture of farming machinery does not require a lot of
steel and we would be able to meet the demand for this raw material
adequately.
That is why we must get down to rural mechanization next year,
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convinced that we would generally be able to do it within a period of
several years.
Concentrating on mechanization in South Hwanghae and South
Phyongan Provinces first does not mean that the other provinces would
have to sit and wait for their turn; semi-mechanization should be
introduced in all parts of the country. Cattle should be equipped with
carts to ensure hauling, and animal-drawn farming machinery should
be widely used to save as much manpower as possible.
What is most important in rural mechanization is to enhance the
role of farm machine hire stations.
Originally, hired ploughing meant ploughing for payment. I am not
sure whether the name is the cause of it, but anyhow the workers of
hire stations have a very low sense of responsibility. Regarding
ploughing as a job for someone else, not for themselves, tractor drivers
do not bother to till the edges of fields well, and often leave unbroken
patches behind them. This is seriously wrong. If they work like this,
how can farm machine hire stations perform their leading role as
centres of rural technical revolution?
It is very important that every worker of these stations should
clearly understand that farming is not a job for farmers alone, but for
himself, too, and that not only agricultural cooperatives but also hire
stations are responsible for the performance of agriculture.
But this is not really the case at present. Station workers are not at
all interested in the performance of agriculture. They do not care about
whether the crops grow well or not; they seem to think they have
nothing to worry about so long as they are paid every month. This is
why station managers are doing their jobs without going out to see the
fields even once.
I think farm machine hire stations, in fact, should become more
responsible for the performance of agriculture when mechanization is
introduced from now on. To this end, the system of work at these
stations should be overhauled, beginning with their wage system. The
wage system should be changed immediately, if possible by next year,
in such a way that the station workers would start to take an interest in
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raising crop yields in the area under their responsibility.
The name of these establishments which implies ploughing for hire,
should also be changed. This plenary meeting, therefore, has decided
to rename them farm machine stations.
In the future, we must see to it that the workers of farm machine
stations, too, share the benefit of good crops and suffer, on the
contrary, from bad crops to a certain degree. And the production of rich
crops or poor crops is a matter of tremendous importance to the state as
well. So farm machine station workers should plough more fields
faster, deeper and more carefully, haul fertilizer in time, bring in
harvests without wasting a single grain, and also ensure threshing. All
these workers should thus be brought to acquire the trait of being
completely responsible for farming through their work with farming
machines. Making sure that this work is done properly is also the main
purpose of the conference of vanguard workers in rural mechanization
which will be held soon.
Moreover, to ensure that rural mechanization is carried out
successfully, it is important to enhance the roles of farm machine
repair stations, small farm machine factories run by provinces, cities,
and counties as well as state farm machine factories. The Kiyang
Machine Factory, the Tokchon Automobile Plant and all other
factories which cooperate in production should all be responsible for
the production of farming machinery.
Sowing, weeding and harvesting machines and farming trailers
should be manufactured in accordance with technical conditions and
capabilities: those which can be produced by counties should be
produced there in large quantities; those whose manufacture is possible
in provincially-run factories, should be made in provinces; and those
somewhat difficult to manufacture should be made at
centrally-controlled factories and distributed properly.
Besides, a movement should be launched vigorously to make new
farming machines designed to suit our particular conditions. The
easygoing attitude to use only foreign designs should be dropped. Of
course, it would be a good idea to learn from the valuable experiences of
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foreign countries. But our country has narrow fields, steep slopes, heaps
of stones in the fields, watery plots and marshes. It is urgent to
manufacture farming machinery designed to suit these specific features.
We must develop a mass movement to make such machines and enlist in
this programme the talents and creativity of a large number of workers
and technicians. This is the way to accelerate agricultural
mechanization, one of the most important tasks facing our country.
Next, we should take good care of land, which is essential to
agriculture.
This year land management was not efficient.
As all of you know, our country has little arable land, all the more
so on account of territorial division. Most of the good plains and fertile
land are situated in south Korea, and they are being spoiled year in,
year out. The south Korean countryside is now a zone of chronical
hunger, though it was a granary in former days.
The total area of farmland in both parts of the country amounts to
only four million hectares, of which the north scarcely accounts for
less than two million hectares even including orchards and mulberry
fields, for the ten million people. So land is very precious for us. You
must not forget these circumstances even for a single moment.
That is why we must reclaim as much new land as possible, and
most importantly make an effective use of the existing land, and
transform nonproductive fields into fertile ones.
It would be absurd to complain of bad land. There is a saying that
no land is bad to a good farmer, is there not? This is true, indeed! An
incompetent painter will complain of his brush; and an ignorant
farmer, his land.
It cannot be denied that our land is not so fertile as others’. That is a
natural gift, and it cannot be helped, can it? If we give it all up because
it is barren, where can we go and what can we do? Comrades, we must
transform it into good land, instead of throwing it away. Let us not put
up the slogan to discard land; we must improve it.
Land, however bad, can become fairly good, if it is manured
zealously, cleared of stones, and drained.
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After yesterday’s session, the members of the Presidium sat up late
into the night, hearing how land was used this year by the Sangphyong
Agricultural Cooperative in Kim Chaek County, North Hamgyong
Province. This cooperative made a good job of it.
Last spring we made an inspection of the area. The land was barren.
Heaps of stone were all over the place, and the soil was infertile,
indeed. So I asked the chairman of the management board of the
cooperative for his opinion of the land situation. He answered that he
intended to abandon 102 hectares of his land this year. His words
sounded disastrous. So I called together all the farmers, including the
elderly, and talked the matter over with them. I asked many of them if
there was any other way to use the land.
It was settled first that mulberry trees which were said to grow well
there should be planted in some 60 hectares. Some fruit trees should
also be planted in adequate areas. It was also decided to plant girasols
for swine feed in some six hectares of sandy land and brackens and
mushrooms in the remainder of the land.
We advised them that after the fulfilment of these tasks they should
raise cattle, pigs, goats and rabbits, set up beehives, and also breed
chickens. We told them that if they did all these jobs they would
probably be sitting on a heap of money by next year. The farmers kept
their promise in good faith. They planted mulberries, girasols,
brackens, mushrooms, and fruit trees. Their milch cows increased in
number from three to 65, pigs from 54 to 206, goats from 45 to 107,
rabbits from three to 601, and beehives from 21 to 126. They say that
the share of every household in cash alone will be at least 70,000 won
in old currency.
Comrades, this is the direction in which North Hamgyong Province
must advance, the road which all the rural communities with limited
and infertile land must take. The struggle of these farmers who are
developing their cooperative economy into a solid, multifarious
economy by utilizing their barren land in every possible way, instead
of discarding it, is an example for all our agricultural cooperatives and
farmers to follow.
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We must not give up an inch of land or leave it idle, but reclaim as
much new land as possible, and also zealously protect and improve the
existing land with utmost care so as to increase production. Our Party
has emphasized this more than once, but I must stress it once more
today.
From now on there should be no encroachment on farmland-such
as building houses on flatland when they can be located at the foot of a
mountain or building factories in rice paddies. In a small land like ours,
it is undesirable to allocate an unreasonably large site, for instance, for
the building of a factory.
Moreover, the rate of land utilization should be raised considerably.
Intercropping and mixed cropping should be widely introduced, and
wherever possible the two-crop system should be adopted, and
advanced intensive farming developed, so as to increase crop yields
even in small plots.
It is important that the people develop the habit of valuing land,
taking good care of it, and cultivating it with dedication. At present,
people do not care about whether or not edges of fields are washed
away by floods during a rainy season, or lost in landslides. They even
dig up fertile fields to get earth for road repair, instead of bringing it in
from mountains. This attitude towards land cannot be tolerated any
longer.
We must not forget that every single patch of land has been handed
down to us from one generation to the other by our forefathers. The
whole Party must uncompromisingly combat careless handling and
wastage of land.
As far as irrigation is concerned, rather than starting large new
construction projects next year, it would be advisable to go on with
those now under way. Of course, we will have to build some
additional, large irrigation works, but it would be better to construct
them later.
From now on, we are going to take up mechanization as our central
task. So farmers will have much work to do, such as land rezoning and
road repairing. That is why it would be difficult to undertake other
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large-scale construction works at the same time.
Nevertheless, in the districts where mechanization is not yet being
undertaken on a wide scale, the farmers should carry on with the
irrigation projects in hand, and, in the east coast areas in particular,
they should push ahead with the projects for forest conservation and
flood control.
In the west coast areas, it is important to make an effective use of
the irrigation works which have been built. This is as important as
raising the utilization rate of equipment in industry. Both industrial
workers and farmers should strive to utilize existing facilities
effectively.
We must develop livestock farming in order to ensure an adequate
supply of secondary food items to the factory and office workers.
We still have much work to do about this matter, if we are to
provide enough meat and cooking oil for our workers who are doing
difficult yet honourable work in factories, mines, iron works and in all
other parts of the country. Since we are not experienced in animal
husbandry, we might, of course, expect more conservatism and
mysticism and greater difficulties than in any other spheres. But we
must overcome them all and succeed.
We must exploit all our potential to produce feed in every possible
way so that we would be able to raise plenty of domestic animals.
Let us begin with a movement whereby every family grows two
pigs annually. In this way, they will produce meat and also manure,
which is very beneficial to farming. A pig discharges three tons of
excrements a year; two pigs mean six tons. According to foreign data I
received recently, one ton of excrements, if mixed with 70
kilogrammes of powdered mineral phosphate, 100 kilogrammes of
powdered lime stone, and earth, would make four tons of good manure.
In other words, a pig means 12 tons of fertilizer a year; and two, 24
tons.
In our country it would be advisable to develop two methods of
stock farming at the same time-the first collectively by the agricultural
cooperatives, the other separately by every individual farming family.
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The cooperatives must develop their own joint stock farming on a big
scale and distribute plenty of piglets among the farmers for a vigorous
movement whereby every household raises pigs and rabbits. Only then
will we be able to raise the living standard of our people, and also
obtain plenty of manure to increase grain production and make the land
fertile.
A very important measure to strengthen the cooperative economy
and stimulate farmers’ enthusiasm for production is to get the
agricultural cooperatives to implement fully the socialist principle of
distribution.
But in this work there have been serious shortcomings on your part.
So far grain and cash have not been distributed well by agricultural
cooperatives.
Some comrades seem to think that the members of the cooperatives
who until quite recently were private farmers, have now all become
communists overnight. That is why they do not even distribute the
grain, but keep it in granaries and virtually ration it out little by little.
Comrades, do you think that such a way of doing things will ever
enhance farmers’ productive zeal? Farmers still retain a great deal of
petty-bourgeois consciousness and habits, and these cannot be
eliminated in a day or two. We must bear this in mind in our work
among the farmers. It would be impossible to stimulate their desire to
increase production unless they receive their due shares correctly and
opportunely according to work done. We must educate them in
communist ideology and, at the same time, ensure appropriate
distribution so as to stimulate their productive zeal.
In 1960, we must also develop the fishing industry and the
production of consumer goods, and build a large number of houses to
raise the living standard of the people.
Developing the fishing industry, along with vegetable production
and stock farming, is of tremendous importance in solving the problem
of secondary food items for the working people.
Fish landings should be increased through diversification, and fish
processing further improved, as it has been emphasized by our Party.
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Efficient processing should be organized well to prevent fish from
going bad and be agreeable to the tastes of the people.
In addition, aquaculture should be undertaken efficiently. This
would help to produce a great amount of non-staple foodstuffs within a
year or two.
I have talked with farmers, and they say that there are hundreds of
thousands of hectares of area suitable for shellfish breeding on the
western coast. If we use this area for this objective and gather three to
four tons of shellfish per hectare at a conservative estimate, the amount
would be enormous. And you can also grow lobsters by walling off the
tidal water. Supply the farmers with the necessary materials, and they
would produce plenty of laver, miyok seaweed, tangle and the like.
Tangle is said to grow to a length of four-and-a-half metres in five
months. If these things are produced, they can be either eaten at home
or exported abroad to exchange for meat.
This is an excellent way to produce secondary foodstuffs without
having to provide feed. However, till now everyone has been shouting
slogans, but no one has organized the work in real earnest. The State
Planning Commission, too, has done nothing to this end except having
several vessels built. From now on, we should make some investments
in this field and develop aquaculture extensively.
In the sector of light industry, special attention should be given to
creating raw material sources. In order to completely solve the problem
of fibre in particular, the Chongjin Spinning Mill and similar factories
should continue to produce staple fibre and rayon yarn in large
quantities. Moreover, the construction of the vinalon factory should be
accelerated. As cotton does not grow well in our country, it is very
important to build the bases of chemical fibre production quickly.
The question of the quality of consumer goods must also be solved.
There is a wide gap between quality and quantity. This year nearly 160
million metres of fabrics are expected to be produced and next year
170 million, or 17 metres for every person. This is not a small amount.
But now, the people require a variety of high-quality fabrics. The
shortcoming is that the quality is not catching up with the quantity.
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Cloth for suits, gabardine, and more knitwear and socks should be
produced. This year 15 million pairs of socks are expected to be
produced, and this will fall far short of the demand. At least 30 to 35
million pairs should be produced.
In the building industry we are going to give priority to housing
construction next year. This is a major factor in improving the working
people’s living conditions. This year, the work force in the state sector
of industry alone has increased by 280,000 workers, and so we cannot
ignore the need to build houses.
The plan envisages building houses for some 80,000 families in
cities and workers’ districts next year. But if we exploit all our
potential, we would be able to build many more houses. Cosy, durable
and serviceable houses should be built in large numbers so as to
resolve the workers’ housing question definitely.
In addition, it is necessary to set up various service facilities and
cultural and welfare establishments in a balanced way. Next year,
along with large-scale housing construction, we must build many
nurseries, bathhouses, laundries, and restaurants and improve the
living conditions of the factory and office workers.
In this way we would be carrying out the task of basically resolving
the problems of food, clothing and housing for the people, put forward
by the First Five-Year Plan.
Next year, we must also give great attention to increasing labour
productivity and the rate of equipment utilization.
In industry, work on construction projects now in hand should be
continued. Moreover, they need not finish them ahead of schedule;
they should carry them out in the planned order for each year,
undertaking new projects as few as possible.
What matters in industry today is to utilize equipment and
production space more effectively.
The rate of equipment utilization is still low; it is not operated on a
normal basis. We must enhance the role of the repair and maintenance
shops markedly and get them to manufacture spare parts in time, and
reduce the time needed for the repair of machines and prevent all
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accidents, thus raising the rate of equipment utilization in every way.
In our country, the rate of the utilization of production space in all
machine-building plants and other factories is lower than in other
countries. We should take measures to utilize factories more
effectively and increase production by utilizing existing space more
efficiently.
On the other hand, next year we must not increase the number of
workers beyond the present level in the fields of industry and
construction. Our circumstances are such that they make it necessary to
shift some 30,000 men from the industrial work force to agriculture.
Therefore, only if labour productivity is raised markedly, would we be
able to increase production and build more next year.
At present, there is a latent potentiality for a rapid growth of labour
productivity in the spheres of industry and construction. Next year’s
plan envisages a 12.5 per cent growth in industrial production, but we
shall be able to exceed this target by far through an all-out mobilization
of the potentialities for higher rates of labour productivity and
utilization of equipment.
Next year conditions are expected to be similar to those in 1957, the
first year of the First Five-Year Plan.
Many factories had been built during the Three-Year Plan, but they
were not being used properly; the number of workers had swollen
greatly, but their technical level had remained very low. So, work was
organized with great care, and the result was a rapid increase in
production.
During the First Five-Year Plan, too, a large number of factories
have been built, with a lot of equipment becoming available and the
work force growing larger. But both the workers’ technical level and
the rate of equipment utilization are low. In this situation, we must
organize work more efficiently and increase labour productivity and
the rate of equipment utilization. Then production will rise as it did in
1957.
I think we will be able to raise industrial output by 20 per cent to 25
per cent-though it would be difficult to increase output by 40 per cent
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to 50 per cent as we did at that time-in spite of the fact that our industry
is now better organized and that the workers’ technical level is higher
than in those days.
For this reason, next year’s target is set low, but you, comrades,
should achieve a great success by organizing and directing work
proficiently.
The next thing to do is to adjust properly the balance between
socialist accumulation and consumption.
This question I have already emphasized many times, but I can
hardly say that it has been adequately taken care of in all sectors.
Why is accumulation necessary under our system? Because it is
necessary just for extended reproduction, the construction of more
factories, the production of more machines, the establishment of more
cultural and welfare facilities, and, after all, for the betterment of the
working people’s living conditions. Accumulation, though not
intended for immediate consumption, is in fact for the people’s own
good, for their future happiness.
In contrast, consumption means meeting immediate needs.
Why, then, is it so important in our economic life to adjust the
balance between the two properly?
If we were to keep the hard-working people hungry, ill-clothed and
unrelfeshed, saving only for their future happiness, no one would
believe it, and economic construction, as a whole, would become
difficult.
On the contrary, if we were to consume all our earnings without
saving and giving any thought to the future, we would be unable to
make any more progress; we would have to mark time.
In order to make the factory and office workers a little more better
off, and raise the living standard of the farmers on the whole to that of
the well-to-do middle farmers, we must save a portion of the earnings;
this would be used for extended reproduction. Only then would we be
able to produce more foodstuffs and fabrics, build more houses and
provide the people with far better livelihood than we are doing now.
Keeping accumulation and consumption well balanced, therefore,
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is very important for those who direct socialist economic construction,
for those who run a planned economy. If you do not keep the two in a
proper balance, you would be risking driving into bankruptcy not only
the economy of a factory or a cooperative, but that of the whole
country. But we are biased towards too much saving, and also have a
tendency towards uncontrolled consumption.
Why am I re-emphasizing this question today? Because it is
probable that in some areas they might be neglecting accumulation
totally and consuming everything in the belief that next year would be
a period of adjustment when stress would be made on improving the
living standard of the people.
And savings should not be wasted on unnecessary construction,
instead of being used effectively for extended reproduction. Increasing
cultural and welfare facilities and furnishing them well is, of course, a
good thing. But there should be no tendency to discard still serviceable
clubhouses, nursery buildings, bathhouses, and shops only to build
new ones on the presupposition of a period of adjustment. Frankly
speaking, the problem does not lie in shop building, but in commodity
production. If we have plenty of goods, we would be able to supply the
working people smoothly with any amount of goods even through the
existing shops.
We must steadily raise the living standard of the working people
step by step, and also ceaselessly increase socialist accumulation.
Our country is not yet industrialized. To bring about complete
industrialization, we need to go on saving a great deal.
Comrades, what a great amount of work we have to do from now
on! We have to produce plenty of tractors and automobiles, and also
build many electric power stations and electrify railways. These tasks
need a tremendous amount of iron. If we are to mass-produce iron, we
must develop many mines, build blast furnaces and open-hearth
furnaces. In order to meet all these challenges, we must continue to
increase accumulations.
And the demand for mechanization alone is not small. Agriculture
is still in the process of mechanization, and local industry which
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accounts for 30 per cent of industrial production in our country must
now also start to introduce mechanization. If we are to do all these
things, we must continue to save and accumulate.
As you know, we have received considerable amounts of aid from
fraternal countries in the postwar years. But from now on we must
develop the economy independently. Moreover, we have to pay our
debts to fraternal countries.
So we must continue to increase production and practise economy,
while properly combining socialist accumulation and consumption for
the benefit of the people. The slogan of “increased production and
economization” put up by our Party at the December 1956 Plenary
Meeting of its Central Committee must continue to be a militant slogan
for our people next year as well, and the whole Party must launch a
popular movement to put it into effect.
In addition, we must uncompromisingly combat poor management
in enterprises, both industrial and agricultural, which are incurring
losses to the state, rather than generating revenue.
At present, nearly all of state farms are being run at a loss. A radical
change in their management must be effected so that all of them would
start making a profit.
All Party members and officials must clearly know what a great
loss the state incurs every time a worker or office employee is
unnecessarily recruited by enterprises and institutions. The waste of
one man’s labour for a year means the loss of 100,000 won in the old
currency and 1,000 won in the new. You would easily understand what
a tremendous loss results from the idle life of a man, if the loss of what
he could have produced is added up. So how seriously wrong is your
unjustified expansion of organizational structure to produce so many
idlers! The reported practice of keeping 24 to 27 idlers in a farm
machine hire station which has 40 tractors should be eliminated
immediately.
We must continuously strive to ensure that all economic sectors and
enterprises strengthen the cost-accounting system, determinedly
combat all practices which result in wastage, and be beneficial to the
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state all the time, instead of inflicting losses upon it.
We should make a concerted effort to practise economy and
increase accumulations, with a clear understanding that managing the
socialist economy efficiently and making profit for the state today
precisely means contributing to the welfare of the people and the
prosperity of the country.
Finally, I would like to refer to the question of building up state
reserves.
For a long time our country was in a state of poverty, indeed, being
unable to afford to put any things worth mentioning in reserve. But
much has changed since. It seems that the time has come for us to
manage our economic life properly. Our country, too, needs to have
reserves, and it is fully possible to have them.
Our country has not been reunified yet. It could be reunified
peacefully, if the international situation develops more to our favour,
the Yankees are compelled to go home, and the south Korean people
rise up. If we find ourselves without any reserves when such a great
event occurs, we would be unable to do anything. A large number of
people are out of work in south Korea, and the working people, without
exception, are badly dressed and going hungry. So plenty of reserves
would be necessary to save these people and cope with the situation.
The same can be said of the northern half. So far we have been
doing well, free from any particular crisis. But we must think of
preparing ourselves against any contingency. A typhoon may hit our
country and have disastrous effects on the crops. We cannot predict a
calamity. Under such a situation we would be helpless unless we have
something to fall back on.
Plenty of food in particular must be kept in reserve. But this year
when the food situation is fairly good, our comrades slackened control
over distribution and a lot of food was wasted. The Ministry of
Commerce issued an order to ration out food even to those who do not
come to work. How unreasonable!
Comrades, communism is yet to come. Even when it is here, every
able-bodied man must work to live; no law will ever permit idlers to
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eat. Under communism, too, work, after all, will remain basic.
But our Commercial Ministry officials rationed food to people who
do not work, and wasted a great deal of food one way or another. How
unreasonable such economic management is! This must not be allowed
to happen again in the future.
It is necessary to give the people a good explanation about the
question of storing up reserves.
Our insistence on the need for food economization, in fact, is aimed
to build up reserves. Such reserves, too, would belong to the people
and, in the long run, they will be used for the people when they are in
need.
Reserves are essential, if we want to build a socialist paradise in the
northern half of Korea, reunify the partitioned country, and carry out
our revolution to the end. This must be explained clearly to all the
working people.
Only when they know this clearly will they participate zealously in
a popular movement for increased production and economization to
create reserves.
Let us build up reserves of food, reserves of different kinds of
commodities and reserves of gold. Such reserves will also facilitate
foreign trade. Though we have set next year as a period of adjustment,
we must launch a vigorous movement to build up reserves.
3. ON IMPROVING THE WORK
OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT BODIES
This plenary meeting discussed ways to improve the work of the
people’s committee and adopted a related decision.
The major shortcoming in the work of our people’s committee is
that it has failed to reorganize its work in conformity with the new
circumstances.
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There are two new major factors which call for a change in the work
of the people’s committee.
One is that the socialist form of the economy has established its
complete rule in the urban and rural communities.
Formerly, there were private merchants and manufacturers in
towns, and a large number of private farmers in the countryside. The
people’s committee in those years guided the private sectors. But these
sectors have now been transformed on socialist lines. The work of the
people’s committee, therefore, should change over from the system of
giving guidance to private economic activities to that of directing the
socialist economy.
In giving guidance to the rural community in the past, all that the
people’s committee had to do was to make information to the effect
that they should work well or lead them, for instance, by encouraging
them to plant more of certain crops. And the main duty of the people’s
committee in relation to the private merchants and industrialists was to
collect taxes from them.
At present, all the countryside has been embraced by
cooperativization, and all the factories and goods distribution network
are now under socialist ownership. They are free from exploitation,
and everything in them is serving the interests of the people. The
socialist economy cannot be run spontaneously; it can only be
developed in a planned way. Precisely for this reason, the economy
under socialist system expands continuously at a high rate, and the
people’s living standard rises without respite.
This superiority of the socialist economy, however, will not find its
expression unless it is managed carefully according to a plan. If our
people’s committees do not organize the socialist economy directly, but
leave it to drift on its own as they used to in the days of the private
economy, vegetable supplies will run short at once; meat, too, would run
out of supply, and factories and enterprises will come to a standstill.
That is why it is now very important that the people’s committees
change their work in such a way as to organize and run the socialist
economy properly.
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Another new factor that makes things different from what they used
to be is that the scope of economic work under the guidance of the
provincial and county people’s committees has expanded greatly in
terms of quantity.
In former days, many of the factories and enterprises were under the
supervision of the central authority, and few were under the guidance
of the provincial and county people’s committees.
But at present, provincial authority has been extended, and local
people’s committees have acquired wide-ranging powers to direct
economic organization and management. There is a lot of work which
must be undertaken directly by local government bodies such as the
work of goods distribution, agricultural cooperatives, provincial and
county stock farms, local industry, irrigation, construction, town
management and so on. At present, the output value of industries under
the supervision of a province is equivalent to that produced in the past
under the jurisdiction of the People’s Committee of North Korea.
Similar is the situation in education and culture; all these functions
have become the responsibility of local people’s committees, with the
exception of a number of universities which remain under the direct
control of the Ministry of Education and a few other institutions under
the central authority.
When the economy was small you might have been able to run it
even without a definite plan; but today you will hardly be able to run
our huge economy by a rule of thumb.
These new circumstances have come into being in the course of
economic development and progress in socialist construction in our
country; but our people’s committees have not yet reorganized their
work in keeping with the new situation. This is our major weakness.
The considerable decrease in the sown areas this year is also due to
this weakness. In the former days when the land was under the direct
control of the central authority, there was nothing extraordinary; but
with the responsibility to supervise the land transferred to their hands,
the provincial authorities indiscriminately allowed much of it to lie idle
and failed to ensure that all the area was sown with crops as planned.
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The practical economic guidance qualifications of the officials of
people’s committees are at a very low level. In spite of their
responsibility to direct factories, they even do not know what the term
cost of production means and what goods distribution implies. This
explains why they are even unable to work out a plan properly.
Recently, when inspecting Onchon County, I found that they had
been planning goods distribution without taking into consideration
the purchasing power of the farmers, their demands and living
standard.
When the county people’s committees draw up an agricultural plan,
none of their officials go down to the ri to learn about the actual
situation there, how many cattle and carts are available, how many men
and women make up the work force, or how much good and bad land
they have. They just calculate the tonnage of crops to be produced in
accordance with available data on the area of cultivated land and the
total strength of the work force and set it down as their planned target.
What sort of guidance or organizing work is this?
It might be somewhat too much to say that the county people’s
committees do not have any plans. They do have, but their plans are
nothing but mechanical allotments for the ri from the quotas sent down
from the province, quotas which have also been mechanically based on
the target determined by the central authority.
If they can get along in this way, planning would be very simple,
and the county people’s committee could dispense with the planning
commission.
Some counties are doing without the chairmen of the planning
commissions. Quite a few provincial people’s committees, too, are
working without them. In consequence, county and provincial people’s
committees are working without any clear-cut plans; I would say they
are just drifting about.
Leading officials of provincial people’s committees are busy
driving around, just urging people to do one thing after another, but
they do not try to examine or think about why things are not going
smoothly. Guidance would only be rewarding when it is used to
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pinpoint shortcomings and correct them, and to identify good things
and help to develop them further. Otherwise you would only be
wasting gasoline by driving about aimlessly.
All this is due to lack of planning. Even where there are plans, these
are irrational. Plans are drafted carelessly at counties and then
forwarded to provinces which in turn endorse them without analysing
them seriously and then submit them to the central leadership. Based
on such careless work, the central leadership drafts its plan. How can
such a plan be reliable?
The State Planning Commission has never worked out a correct
plan for the rural economy. The blame for this must be laid at the door
of the county people’s committees and the provincial people’s
committees, as well as the State Planning Commission. You must
understand this.
What is most important today is to enhance the functions of local
government bodies in economic organization, and raise their level of
planning in particular.
There are differences between the laws governing the development
of socialist and capitalist economies. Now that the socialist form of the
economy is completely dominant, the economy in our country can only
be developed by means of planned production, planned accumulation,
and planned consumption. In short, the socialist economy can only be
managed and developed in a planned way.
Then, who is to make the plans and organize the work to implement
them? It must be the people’s committees. In building socialism,
planning and organizing the economy is one of the essential duties of
the people’s committees.
But provincial and county people’s committees are not clearly
aware of their functions as economic organizers.
The provincial people’s committees must perform the functions
related to guidance on the one hand, and, on the other, those related to
organization and operation. They should directly organize the work of
the provincial stock farms and factories and operate them, and in
relation to the counties they should give guidance.
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In contrast, the county people’s committees must perform the
functions related to organization and operation because they are the
units responsible for the implementation of Party policy.
Suppose that in a county there are 20 agricultural cooperatives, a
stock farm, an iron works, a textile mill, schools and hospitals. Then,
all these must be organized and operated directly by the county
people’s committee.
Since the functions related to guidance and organization are not
identical, the two concepts must have different applications. It must be
clearly understood that the county, unlike the province, is a directly
organizing unit.
If they are to enhance their organizing and guidance functions, the
provincial and county people’s committees must improve the work of
their planning commissions. The planning commission must assume
the role of the staff of a people’s committee.
However energetic he may be, the chairman of the county people’s
committee alone would be unable to cope with the planning and all
other work. It is imperative that the specialists who are assigned to the
planning commission should work out effective plans and keep the
chairman of the county people’s committee informed about their
implementation so that he would be in a position to take the necessary
measures.
Wherever there is a planned economy, things will not run smoothly
without a planning commission. In provinces and counties, too, they
would be unable to strengthen their organizing and guidance functions
in economic construction unless they improve the work of their
planning commissions.
What kind of people should the planning commission be staffed
with? The workers of this commission must have knowledge about
agriculture and must know how to organize and run local industry, in
other words, the work we are doing. First of all, they must know well
the actual conditions of our country.
Planning commissions, however, are staffed with middle school
graduates who know nothing about production and technology. They
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do not know how to raise cattle or pigs, how to take care of fruit trees,
or how to distinguish between rice and barnyard grass. Since the
planning work is left in the care of such comrades, it is obvious that the
work will go wrong.
Worse still, people’s committee chairmen regard the work of
planning commissions as something of a secondary nature; they
always send the chairmen of these commissions on official trips away
from their own jobs. This has, in fact, reduced the planning
commissions to a nominal existence as far as the county people’s
committees are concerned.
In Onchon County, the chairman of the planning commission has
been allowed to do his own job only for a month out of the ten months
since January; for the rest of the time, he was ordered to do what they
called rush work or to go away on official trips. So he knows nothing
about planning.
The primary task before us today is to strengthen the planning
commissions of the county and provincial people’s committees. The
counties should thus work out feasible plans on the basis of meticulous
calculation of the work force and the means of production.
A plan mapped out by the rule of thumb within the confines of an
office would not conform with reality. This explains why the rural
economy statistics swell at one time and shrink at another. The
spoken words of the provincial Party committee chairman are taken
as planned figures. So after a night’s sleep the figures rise, and when
another night passes they drop. This, after all, means that there is no
planning in agriculture. There is a lot of talk about planning, but the
rural economy is still allowed to drift aimlessly; it is managed
carelessly.
Agriculture, construction, and goods distribution should all be
planned correctly.
In a nutshell, the foremost task in improving the work of the
people’s committee today is to convince the county people’s
committee of its functions as economic organizer and to strengthen the
work of the planning commission.
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4. ON CREATING FORESTS
OF ECONOMIC VALUE
This plenary meeting discussed the question of planting forests of
economic value, the third item on the agenda.
Why is this question so important at present?
As I explained previously, our country has a very small area of
cultivated land. Bulgaria, for instance, has five million hectares for its
population of some eight million, and Hungary 5.5 million for its 10
million population. Czechoslovakia, too, has more than five million for
its population of approximately 13 million. We are the smallest of the
socialist countries in terms of cultivated land.
We must, therefore, not try to obtain raw materials for oil and fibre
from farmland only.
So there is a saying dating back to the time of our forefathers that
mountains should be exploited. We, too, put up a similar slogan a long
time ago. Effective use of mountains is very important for us. Only if
we make a good use of mountains which account for most of the land
area of our country, would we be able to derive a great deal of wealth
from them.
We started a movement to plant 100,000 hectares of apple orchards
and have already planted some 70,000 hectares. If we harvest 10 tons
of apples per hectares, five to six years after reaching the target of
100,000 hectares, we would be able to produce one million tons of
apple per year. This is a great amount. We would be able to exchange
them for grain or meat or eggs.
Recently, together with foreign guests, we inspected Pukchong and
found the apple crops there excellent. An apple tree bore 14,000 fruits,
and this means more than one ton of harvest from a single tree.
Moreover, all those apple trees had been planted on very steep hills.
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And the people over there were continuing to reclaim mountains. So I
pointed out that the Pukchong people were the first to start exploiting
mountains. They are leading the others, so to speak. Apart from such
mountains, we have plenty of land suitable for apple orchards on the
western coast.
In some countries they are working hard to reclaim virgin land, but
we must reclaim mountains. We are going to reach the target of 100,000
hectares within the near future and then expand the area further.
But if we plant too many apple orchards, we will find it difficult to
take good care of them. So we are now planning to try planting other
kinds of fruit trees. Chestnut, walnut, paulownia, pine-nut, and apricot
trees, if planted in large quantities, will give us both fruit and a lot of
oil. Since their cultivation does not require so much labour as apple
orchards, they will become a very valuable property with a few years
after being planted.
This plenary meeting decided to plant such trees in some 200,000
hectares. Then, in approximately ten years they will yield an enormous
amount of fruits which will be used to mass-produce good oil.
Furthermore, effective use of mountains is also important in
obtaining fibre. Poplars grow very rapidly. Plant them in 300,000
hectares, and in several years they will give us raw material to produce
staple fibre, rayon yam and paper. In this way, we would be able to
resolve the problem of fibre, even if we do not cultivate cotton. And
this is not too a difficult work. This can be done by sharing the work
between factories and other enterprises, state institutions, and
agricultural cooperatives.
We must vigorously launch the movement to plant some 500,000
hectares of productive forests, of which approximately 200,000
hectares should be devoted to oil-producing fruit trees, and some
300,000 to poplars and other trees from which fibre could be derived.
At present a widespread campaign is going on to conserve forests
and prevent floods, but no measures are being taken to cushion the
effects of typhoons. Trees, if planted carefully along the coast, would
serve as a shelter belt. If they are planted now, they will prove to be
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very useful in some ten years’ time.
Since our forefathers have not done such things, we ought to do so
much the more, ought we not? We must do these things for our future
good and for the good of future generations.
The Democratic Youth League in particular should actively
mobilize young people in this work. If it is left to agricultural
cooperatives alone, it would not be successful. All factories and other
workplaces, and schools should be assigned to plant a specific number
of hectares with chestnut trees, a number of hectares with poplars, so
on and so forth.
The planting of the forests of economic value is, of course, a project
to be undertaken separately from the task of afforestation which is
carried on every year. This should be continued.
It is already 15 years since our liberation. A decade is not too long a
time. Had we started this project in 1946, we would by now have been
harvesting the fruit. Needless to say, we could not afford to do it at that
time, but now we must get down to it with determination.
In addition, I deem it necessary to re-emphasize the need to make
good use of wild fruit which is abundant in our country. Local industry
factories should strengthen the work of processing such fruit.
One thing you must be careful about in connection with the planting
of productive forests is that you should refrain from allotting too much
land to nurseries for saplings lest they should hamper the production of
grain and vegetables. You must not encroach upon farmland in
carrying out this task.
5. ON PARTY WORK
Finally, I would like to speak about Party work.
The key to the implementation of all the tasks we have discussed
lies in our Party members doing a good job. If they work well, all the
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tasks decided on at this plenary meeting would be carried out
satisfactorily, and a new change would take place in our work in the
period ahead.
If we are to work efficiently, we must first of all enhance our own
understanding of Marxist-Leninist doctrine.
Why did our officials fail to grasp the main objective in their work,
why did they use more manpower against established policy, while
paying little attention to increasing labour productivity, and why did
they fail to make a correct estimate of the agricultural productive
forces and manage the rural economy haphazardly? That is entirely
because they lack the economic knowledge involved in building
socialism.
All our Party members are fine people; they are enthusiastic about
their work. Nevertheless, they frequently make mistakes because they
do not know how to analyse their work scientifically.
Our acquiring the ability to analyse work and getting ourselves
versed in it means, after all, enhancing our understanding of
Marxist-Leninist doctrine.
Our Party is young, and its members have not gone through a very
long period of education; consequently many of them still lack the
knowledge of Marxism-Leninism.
That is why they do not know what is contrary to Marxist-Leninist
principles, and are incapable of making a correct analysis of their work
on the basis of these principles
All our Party policies are creative applications of these principles in
a way which is suitable to our specific conditions. Precisely for this
reason our Party’s policies are correct and have a great vitality. The
problem is that our officials are not able to accept Party policies
correctly and understand them on account of their inadequate
understanding of Marxism-Leninism.
We have already established a good social system, and our society
is developing very quickly. But those who have to run this society have
a low level of technical qualifications. In other words, the operators are
not well-informed of the machines which they are operating. If he is to
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drive his car skilfully, an automobile driver must have full knowledge
about the structure of his machine and the method of its operation. Not
well acquainted with the society which they are to run, however, our
comrades would not know what is wrong when their work is not going
successfully. For example, they are ignorant of the essentials of a
planned economy. As a result, they consider that it would suffice just
to make a plan and to set a target, by compiling figures that come into
their mind.
In order to become excellent drivers capable of developing our
society rapidly, they must know the laws which regulate our social
progress. The Party formulates all its policies and gives its members
concrete fighting tasks, in accordance with the laws of social progress.
This is the very source of the unconquerable power of a
Marxist-Leninist party. But how could Party members responsible for
the implementation of its policies struggle successfully without having
a good knowledge of the laws of social progress?
Studying, therefore, is most important for us at present. The whole
Party must study Marxism-Leninism. In order to judge all things and
phenomena from the dialectical viewpoint of materialism and in order
to understand the laws of social progress correctly, they must study
Marxist philosophy. And in order to understand the laws governing the
development of socialist economy, they must study political economy.
Our national economic plan is based on the laws of socialist
economy. So it would be impossible to run the national economy in a
planned way without having a good understanding of the economic
laws and categories such as the basic law of socialist economy, the law
of planned and balanced development of the national economy,
socialist production of commodities, the question of cost-accounting
system and profits, the question of production costs and prices, and the
theory of extended reproduction under socialism.
In view of this, there are shortcomings in our education, that is, our
education is divorced from reality. Our education has not yet got rid
completely of the outdated rut of dogmatism which fills Party
members with knowledge far divorced from reality, instead of
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imparting to them knowledge badly needed to solve practical
problems. Many comrades are afraid of studying because they are
always told stories which are difficult or impossible to understand.
A lecture which is divorced from reality is not only difficult to
digest, but uninteresting. If every question is well explained in the
context of our situation, nothing would be difficult to understand. At
present, we ourselves are all participating in the revolution and
building socialism on the basis of Marxism-Leninism. The problem is
that our workers are not well acquainted with the principles on which
they are working, though they are making a revolution and building
socialism in practice. Therefore, Marxist-Leninist principles should be
well explained to the working people in relation to their lives. In this
way they would be understood clearly.
It is wrong to present theories as something mysterious. Originally,
a theory was evolved from practice. No theory would be
incomprehensible to us who are engaged in the revolution in practice.
The aim of our theoretical study is to get a more accurate and
profound idea of the questions confronting us in our practice. Only
when we have theoretical knowledge would we be able to understand
Party policy more profoundly and develop work creatively beyond the
narrow limitations of our own experience.
Our revolutionary tasks are very complex and difficult. We must
not only build socialism in the northern half but reunify the country
peacefully. If we are to carry out these complicated and difficult tasks
successfully, we must study more.
Every one without exception must study to become an expert in
running this new society we have established and to advance more
quickly.
One other thing. If they are to become competent masters of the
new society, our officials must acquire a revolutionary thought and a
work method worthy of a communist.
Because of inexperience in revolutionary struggle and insufficient
Marxist-Leninist education, many of our cadres have not thoroughly
acquired a revolutionary viewpoint and work method whereby they
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consider and deal with all questions in a revolutionary way.
What is meant by the revolutionary work method? It means the
method of relying on the strength of the masses. We must learn from
the masses and derive our strength from the masses.
Recently we visited the Sangyang Agricultural Cooperative with
provincial Party committee chairmen to discuss the question of rabbit
breeding with the active Party members there. At that time all the
comrades who were out there were moved by the words of an old
woman who was present.
She was from the family of a man killed by the enemy. Her son was
teaching at the Kang Kon Military Academy, and her daughter,
nephew and grandsons were now living with her, making up a family
of four or five. She was working hard and also doing a good part-time
job, and her livelihood was very good. This year she has already
fattened a pig to the weight of 80 kilogrammes for the market, and she
is growing another which is now some 70 kilogrammes in weight. She
is also breeding seven or eight rabbits and scores of chickens. She said
that the families of martyrs like herself should do more work than
anyone else. Our Party is inspired and strengthened by such people.
Let me give you another example. It happened in 1956 when the
Party was in a great difficulty because of the attack by the anti-Party
factionalists. Accompanied by several comrades, I dropped in on an
agricultural cooperative on our way to Nampho for the election to the
Supreme People’s Assembly. All the members of the cooperative were
hilarious, singing and dancing. At that time an old woman with a baby
on her back came close to me and said, “General, please don’t worry
too much. Now we’re pretty well-off.” In this way the masses trusted
our Party and encouraged us even when the anti-Party factionalists
were attacking our Party saying that it was indifferent to the livelihood
of the people. We are deriving great strength from such trust the
masses place in us and from their encouragement.
In the period of 1956-57 we were in a great difficulty. In those years
materials, funds and many other things were in short supply, and quite
a few people said it would be impossible to carry out the First
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Five-Year Plan. To make the matter worse, Syngman Rhee was bent on
clamouring for a “march north” and fanned a revolt in north Korea
over the radio almost every day. And taking advantage of the
Hungarian incident, the international reactionaries were making much
ado about the collapse of communi s m.
In this situation we had to combat the anti-Party
counterrevolutionaries on the one hand, and, on the other, push
forward with economic construction more vigorously to improve the
living standard of the people rapidly. At this moment the Party Central
Committee resolved to discuss the matter directly with the workers in
order to find a way out of the difficulties. So each of our leadership
cadres took charge of one or two provinces and went out to factories.
Then, I went to the Kangson Steel Plant.
We frankly told the workers that our situation was difficult. We
said: “Syngman Rhee is now threatening to launch a ‘march north’
campaign, and the anti-Party factionalists are trying to overthrow the
Party Central Committee; we cannot just sit doing nothing when
Syngman Rhee is going to attack us and when the anti-Party elements
are scheming to upset the Party Central Committee; we must fight
them and defend the achievements of the revolution; and in order to
fight we must strengthen the material foundations and build more
houses and more factories; this requires a great deal of steel, but we are
very short of steel, and you must produce more steel.”
Then, the workers said that if that was the situation and if that was
the Party’s requirement, they would do it, come what may, and
resolved to produce more steel than anticipated in the state plan. The
workers at the blooming shop, which had been said to be capable of
producing no more than 60,000 tons of steel, decided that they would
produce 90,000 tons. In fact, they produced 120,000 tons that year.
This precisely is where our strength lies.
In over 15 years during which we were fighting the Japanese in the
mountains, the situation was very difficult. With a small revolutionary
armed force we fought the formidable Japanese imperialist army.
Although our strength was not great, we never lost our confidence in
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victory. In those years, too, we always derived our strength from the
masses. They actively supported us, saying that the Japanese would
inevitably fail.
Why am I telling this? Because I want to stress the need for us to go
among the masses and learn from their revolutionary thought and their
way of thinking.
We are also studying the revolutionary traditions in order to learn
from the revolutionary spirit demonstrated by the anti-Japanese
revolutionary forerunners. In those days we struggled for national
liberation against Japanese imperialism, and now we are building
socialism. So the situation now is somewhat different. But we must
learn to acquire Marxist-Leninist thought and the way of thinking from
the revolutionaries of those days. Only then would we be confident of
victory and able to judge all problems correctly. Only then would we
be able to firmly unite with the revolutionary masses and advance
steadily whatever the difficulties.
Depending on the masses does not mean on any account relying on
some sort of public opinion. There are people who disparage our cause.
Particularly in a difficult period, many will waver and many will try to
find fault with us. Since a revolution is a venture to overthrow the
outdated and create the new, the resistance from the old force is
inevitable.
When we were fighting the Japanese, they and the landlords called
us “bandits”, whereas the people hailed us as a revolutionary army. We
have nothing to fear from the wicked who abuse us. That is why we
must prudently analyse the class basis of a public opinion.
In mounting a revolution, we must never rely on the opinion of
people who falter; we must listen to the voice of the former poor
peasants and hired farm hands in the countryside, and to the voice of
the working class in the urban community. They always support us.
Those who are now grumbling and trying to spread misleading
complaints that they are badly off and what not, are people who are
steeped in outdated petty-bourgeois ideas. In the final analysis, they
are people who were well-to-do in former days. These people grumble
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at every possible opportunity, and vacillate no sooner than they are
confronted with a little difficulty. But the workers and peasants who
formerly lived in poverty, are now better off and satisfied; they have
nothing to complain about. They know how to overcome hardship and
are unyieldingly struggling to carry out the revolution. We must
depend on these masses.
Furthermore, what is important in Party work is to unite the
revolutionary masses and educate them at all times.
The circumstances in our country are much more complicated than
in other countries. Many complications arise, first of all, from the fact
that our country is divided into north and south. We are one nation, but
the south is under the occupation of the US imperialists and governed
by a puppet regime of capitalists and landlords, whereas in the north
there is the government of workers and farmers. A shaip class struggle
is going on between the two.
During the three years of the Fatherland Liberation War we waged
an armed struggle against the enemy. They are still trying to destroy
our government; we are struggling to liberate the people from the rule
of the US imperialists and the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique. There
are no direct conflicts, but in fact a class struggle to decide who will
conquer whom is still going on.
We must know that the enemy is ceaselessly manoeuvring to
undermine us politically. They are rabid in their subversive and
disruptive moves. They are continuously infiltrating spies into our
ranks, breeding them in large numbers. The Ya nk ees do not care at all
about their spies’ lives even if we arrest and execute them. They have
no reason why they should feel sorry for the death of Koreans. So the
enemy continues to send in subverters and saboteurs.
They dispatch spies on missions to spread misleading information
to make people suspicious of one another. Though they can anticipate
that their spies would be captured by our internal security men, they
send them on missions to the northern half to get in touch with this or
that man. Their attempt is to make us suspect people, fooled by the fact
that the Yankees and Syngman Rhee send spies to make contact with
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these people. The enemy is trying to cause distrust among ourselves in
this way so that we would turn on each other. All this is a wicked plot
by the enemy to undermine us by taking advantage of the partition of
our country.
Though the country is partitioned, many people in the north have
relatives in the south. In this context, if the relatives in south Korea are
not involved in wicked doings, there would not be any problem. But
some might become officials in the service of Syngman Rhee’s ruling
machinery or do wicked things in the puppet army. This sort of thing
might also cause mistrust and rumours that someone’s relative is doing
something for Syngman Rhee “regime”. But how can a man in the
north be responsible for the acts of his relative in the south?
Intricate problems also arise with the families of those who have
gone over to the south. One might assume that those who have deserted
their families to flee to the south after committing crimes in the north
would do the same in south Korea, too. But this is not the only
possibility; there is a room to assume otherwise. Although a man was
bad before he fled to the south, he might have regretted it if he had to
beg around, and might have joined the struggle against the landlords
and capitalists.
There are other complexities left over from the past. Our country
was long under the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism. At that time
Koreans were compelled to serve the Japanese in order to earn a living.
Some of them, therefore, served in educational institutions and some
worked as sub-county clerks.
In view of the fact that the enemy organized the “peace
maintenance corps” and a host of other things in the north during their
40 days of occupation in the course of the war, it is obvious that in the
36 long years of Japanese imperialist rule there must have been much
more complicated happenings. Many Korean youths were forced by
the Japanese into what they called the ‘ ‘civilian guards” and they stood
sentry under the threat that if they disobey they would be charged as
“Reds” and executed. These things were not done willingly, but mostly
to avoid persecution by the wicked Japanese.
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The same can be said of the happenings during the time of retreat.
At that time, staunch comrades fought heroically, overcoming all sorts
of hardships. True, those who participated in the “peace maintenance
corps” or vacillated one way or another were not stalwart people. But
under the circumstances it was possible that they behaved like that in
order to survive. Had we educated people well before the war, more
people would have fought staunchly during the retreat. Needless to
say, it would have been difficult to educate all the masses like that only
in the four to five years after liberation. But, anyhow, it is a fact that
education was inadequate.
Nevertheless, some comrades are too particular about those who
stayed behind during the retreat. They need not be so. If those who did
not retreat had committed crimes against us, their case would be
different. But, considering that many of the north Korean people were
unable to retreat, we should not take issue with them.
In our country we have many extremely complicated questions such
as those caused by the division of the country into north and south, or
originating from the years of Japanese imperialist rule and the time of
temporary retreat. Almost none of us is completely free from
involvement in such complications.
If we find fault with all these and other factors, very few people
would find themselves faultless. As I always say, the aim of the
communist movement is to lead the masses to prosperity. To this end,
we must unite them and mobilize their efforts in the fulfillment of the
revolutionary tasks. If we dismiss the masses for one reason or another,
few would remain to embrace communism.
This is no way to build communism. Nor would we be able to build
communism on an island just by taking a few pure people with us. We
must build a new life on this land, without fail, together with the
masses and relying on their strength.
If we are to do this, we must transform the people who are
considered questionable for this or that reason, and advance hand in
hand with them. They are the people who can stand on our side.
Our enemies are the Japanese and US imperialists and the traitorous
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Syngman Rhee clique who have driven these people into such a
position. Fundamentally speaking, the partition of our country was
caused by the US imperialists and the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique.
All our efforts, therefore, should be concentrated on the struggle
against them.
We cannot compromise with those who undermine our cause of
building socialism and work against our policy. But we cannot allow
ourselves to forsake a man who says, “I was wrong both in the years of
Japanese imperialism and during the temporary enemy occupation, but
now I support socialism and support communism. Whether or not I have
my relatives in south Korea, I will follow you.”
We are striving to persuade, re-educate and win over even those
people in south Korea who are opposed to us at present. Why should
we reject the people in north Korea who want to follow us?
We must win over many people and educate them to support
communism.
Some of them may not support communism on any account. We
need not oppose even such people so long as they refrain from
opposing what we are doing. If anyone says: “I do not support
communism, but I will join you in the struggle until the north and the
south are reunified,” we should join hands with him, too.
As the chairman of the Yonan County Party Committee said in his
speech yesterday. South Hwanghae Province now seems to have been
moving on the right track. The major shortcoming in the work of
Yonan County in the past was the failure to win over the masses.
The chairmen of the county Party committees or county people’s
committees will be unable to do their jobs properly unless they trust the
masses. They should believe in the masses, constantly educate them
and rally them around the Party. Of course, there may be a few
undesirable elements lurking among the masses. But their number
would not be more than one in several thousands.
In order to combat a handful of counter-revolutionaries, we must
trust the masses and win them over. If we win them over, undesirable
elements would find it impossible to hide among them.
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Without placing our confidence in the masses, we would be unable
to educate and reform them. We must begin with the people of
complicated origin within our Party and patiently educate and
transform them. Even immediately after liberation when the number of
communists was very small, we tried to admit many people into the
Party and educate them. Now that our Party has been strengthened by
war and the ranks of the communist hard core have grown a lot
stronger, why cannot we transform all its members in a communist
way? We can do it.
Today, our capacity is incomparably larger than it was immediately
after liberation. We can accommodate all of its one million members
and imbue them with a communist ideology.
Some of them, of course, would become communist relatively more
quickly, and for others it would take a very long time to get imbued
with communist ideology. Still others would not get imbued however
hard we might try. Those who, despite our efforts, refuse to be
educated must be people who just happen to be among us by
chance-undesirable elements. These elements must be singled out.
At present, in the struggle against counter-revolution some of our
workers tend to be too suspicious of people. I say those who do not
trust the masses are people who are fit only to live in isolation. We
must first trust people and unite with them.
There is only one principle. A person coming from complex
environments should be judged on his own merits. If his idea is good,
then he is acceptable, whatever his background. We must verify
whether he himself is loyal to the Party or not. And even people who
lag behind a little ideologically, should be educated, reformed and
given work.
At present, some comrades say that there are many people of
complicated origin in the county people’s committees and that they
should be replaced. But even if they are replaced with new people, as
these comrades suggest, the problem would not be resolved. If they
investigate the backgrounds of the new people, new doubts related to
their relatives and friends would be raised. This would not resolve
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anything. Chairmen of county Party committees in particular should be
careful about this matter.
What we need at present is education and unity. All the
revolutionary masses must be united closely around our Party.
Our Party reforms both the masses and its members mainly by
educating them. What should we do with those who make mistakes?
We should criticize them. Closing our eyes to, or compromising with,
mistakes are alien to education. Criticism is a method of education.
Thinking that criticism is something bad, some comrades do not
criticize their fellow workers, even when they are aware of their
mistakes. After failing to criticize them, talk to them and educate them,
it would be useless to feel sorry for them only when they have really
slipped into an abyss.
It is probable that people make mistakes. No man is infallible. Our
cadres are liable to make many mistakes of one sort or another
particularly because of their low level of political consciousness and
lack of revolutionary training. Of course, the most important thing is to
take measures to prevent people from committing errors. But once a
mistake is made, it should be corrected immediately through
uncompromising criticism. The point is that a mistake must be
corrected promptly and prevented from occurring again. Failing to
criticize is bad and so is firing people immediately after criticizing
them. Mistakes should be criticized and made known to people clearly,
but discipline should be lenient.
In conclusion, I would like to speak about the need to strengthen
Party leadership in all spheres.
This year we have inspected many areas of work and strongly felt
the need to strengthen Party guidance in all sectors of the national
economy.
Both in the Hwanghae Iron Works and the Kangson Steel Plant we
did find that Party guidance was weak throughout. Probably the
one-man management system had given rise to bureaucracy which the
men in charge of administration were using to override even Party
organizations.
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The former manager of the Kangson Steel Plant, too, committed
this kind of error.
As they are out of Party control, managers indulge in bureaucracy,
failing to hear carefully the opinions of their subordinates, and no one
can criticize them even if they do not implement Party policy correctly,
and lead dissipated lives.
This tendency is manifest also in local government bodies.
Chairmen of provincial and county people’s committees who are
dissipated and negligent of their jobs, are not controlled by Party
committees. As a result, many people become involved in mistakes,
and precious people often become useless.
The term “control” is not much to the liking of some comrades.
There is no great difference in the meaning of “guidance” and
“control”. Why should Party control, not individual control, sound
offensive to them? Party control means precisely the control of the
masses of Party members. I think there is no reason why they should
dislike the term “Party control” if they have a revolutionary viewpoint
with regard to the masses.
Party guidance does not imply guidance given by any individual
chairman of a county Party committee. It means the collective
guidance of the organization which is called the Party. In other words,
it means that all Party members obey the Party organization.
The Presidium of the Central C ommittee of our Party has adopted a
policy for further strengthening Party guidance. The people’s
committees should operate under the control of the corresponding
executive committees of the provincial, municipal and county Party
committees, and the factories should do all their work under the
guidance of the factory Party committees.
The highest leadership of a factory is not the manager, but the
factory Party committee. The manager and the Party committee
chairman are to work under the guidance of the factory Party
committee. The factory Party committee should discuss economic
affairs, too, the manager should do administrative work and the factory
Party committee chairman Party work in accordance with Party
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committee decisions. This does not mean on any account that the
one-man management system has been abolished. But the manager
should work under the guidance of the factory Party committee, and
this would do.
The factory Party committee should discuss the Cabinet decisions
and ministerial orders, but it has no authority to reject them; it has only
the duty to implement them. When it has a different opinion, it should
submit it to the Party Central Committee for an answer.
The Party committee chairman who is to organize and run a factory
Party committee, has a very heavy responsibility. Therefore, the level
of factory Party committee chairmen should be enhanced, and those
who have a good knowledge of industrial affairs should be assigned to
work as chairmen.
Besides, the provincial and county Party committees must comprise
members who are well-versed in production matters. At present, since
the executive committee of a county Party committee consists only of
Party workers such as the county Party committee chairman,
vice-chairmen, the chiefs of organizational and information
departments, the activity of the executive committee is limited to
intemal-Party work, and the committee is inefficient in giving
guidance in economic work.
Today, our important revolutionary task is to build the economy
successfully. The Party committee must give guidance in economic
construction, and accordingly competent technicians and workers who
are well informed about economic construction, must be on the Party
committee. Only then would the Party committee be in a position to
discuss all affairs and lead work efficiently.
This seems the best solution under our present circumstances. This
has been introduced first in the People’s Army on an experimental
basis, and the result has been rewarding. I think it is advisable that
other institutions, too, should strengthen Party guidance and control in
this way.
This plenary meeting has a historic significance. Just as we did at
the time of the December 1956 Plenary Meeting, we must meticulously
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organize the implementation of the decisions of this plenary meeting
and actively mobilize the conscious efforts and enthusiasm of the Party
members and ensure that the whole Party carry out successfully the
tasks of the adjustment period of 1960 in a high spirit.
This is the only way we can make full preparations for the
successful realization of the Second Five-Year Plan which is of
decisive significance in building socialism in our country.
450
THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC
OF KOREA IS THE TRUE HOMELAND
OF KOREAN COMPATRIOTS IN JAPAN
Talk to the Compatriots Who Returned by the First
Batch of Repatriation Ships
December 21, 1959
Y ou had to go to a lot of trouble to come to the homeland. I am very
happy that you have returned home and warmly welcome you back.
Having received the compatriots repatriated from Japan, today the
whole country is in a festive mood. It is very delightful that our
compatriots have met again and have come to live together after a long
separation. I was told that you and those people who turned out to
welcome you all wept. These were tears of joy and emotion.
In former days, our compatriots in Japan were a people
dispossessed and they were a miserable lot. In the past, no one would
come to their aid even though they were maltreated and starved. But
today things are different. They now have a genuine homeland, the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The homeland fights in
defence of their national rights and shows deep concern for their life.
Our compatriots in Japan today have their own homeland and are the
legitimate overseas citizens of the DPRK.
It is natural for our overseas compatriots to come home to their
homeland. So it is also natural for the homeland to accept them. The
people at home are duty bound to accept the compatriots in Japan
warmly and the latter have the right to return home. When there was
451
not a country of their own, it was inevitable for our compatriots to live
scattered in this or that country. Now that they have their own country,
their own government and their own Party, those Koreans who were
scattered overseas are justified in returning home and living together
with the people in the homeland.
In the past, you had been subjected to racial discrimination and
humiliation in an alien land. So I am sure you have come to realize
clearly how precious the homeland is. We, too, lived in a foreign land
when we had been deprived of our country by the Japanese
imperialists. What was uppermost in our minds at that time was the
yearning of the homeland.
We would like to welcome warmly those compatriots who return
home from foreign countries and are making earnest efforts for their
repatriation.
You have fought valiantly to return home and finally won. The
repatriation of Koreans from Japan was realized thanks to the valiant
struggle waged by Chongryon (The General Association of Korean
Residents in Japan) and the Koreans there and with the active support
of the Japanese people.
Their repatriation represents a great victory on the part of our Party
and people. It is also a victory for all socialist countries. World history
knows no instance of such an exodus of overseas citizens from the
so-called “free world” to a socialist country. Under the conditions
existing in our country, partitioned into north and south, the mass
repatriation of Korean nationals from Japan to the northern half of
Korea, the socialist homeland, signifies not only a victory for our Party
and people but also a victory for all socialist countries.
The repatriation of our compatriots from Japan to the north showed
that only the DPRK defends the national rights of overseas compatriots
and shows deep concern for their life, out of the genuine brotherly
love. On the other hand, it fully exposed the Syngman Rhee puppet
regime’s acts of selling the country in the eyes of the people all over
the world.
The repatriation of Koreans from Japan exerted a great political
452
influence on the south Korean people and all the overseas compatriots.
It gave our overseas compatriots great hopes and confidence and made
them proud of being the legitimate citizens of their own country not as
in the past when they had no place to go and no one to rely on. The
repatriation of Koreans from Japan also raised the international
prestige of our country and united overseas compatriots behind our
Party and the Government of our Republic.
In the past, you had a hard time in Japan and fought in defence of
the national rights. But from now on, you, together with the people at
home, must work hard for the cause of socialist construction in the
homeland. I think all of you are eager to devote yourselves to the
country and to make it more splendid.
Our country is now under construction. Due to the war started by
the US imperialists, everything in our country was destroyed and
reduced to ashes. During the war, the US imperialists showered 18
bombs per square kilometre in the northern half of Korea. Having
reduced our country to heaps of ashes, they said that Korea would not
be able to raise her head above water again in a hundred years’ time.
However, we realized the Three-Year Plan for the Rehabilitation and
Development of the National Economy after the war and rapidly
rebuilt all its branches to the prewar level. The First Five-Year Plan
whose main task was to lay the foundations for socialist
industrialization was also realized in two and a half years in total
industrial output value.
In this way, we rapidly reconstructed and developed the national
economy which had remained backward in the past and which had
been destroyed by the war, and raised the people’s living standard
significantly. But you would be wrong if you think construction in the
homeland has been completed. Our life is not prosperous yet. We just
attained a position whereby we are able to feed, clothe and house
ourselves. Our people’s living standard at the time of Japanese
imperialist rule was likened to that of hired hands. After liberation, it
reached the level of poor peasants. Now, we can say that it has reached
that of middle peasants. Our people’s living standard has not yet
453
attained the level of well-to-do middle peasants; we are striving to
bring it up to that level.
Our socialist system is the most superior in the world. In our
country, everyone has the right to work and guaranteed employment.
On reaching the working age, everyone is provided with a job by the
state, according to his ability and physical constitution. Besides
providing jobs for those who can work, the state is also responsible for
looking after disabled persons, old people who have no other means of
support, and orphans. Therefore, in our country no one roams about
hunting for a job and resorts to begging as in Japan and south Korea.
In our country, the state provides all the working people with
conditions to obtain food, clothing and shelter. It is said that a few days
ago, a 38-year-old woman with no shelter suffered from exposure and
froze to death in Taegu, south Korea. But nothing like that happens in
the north.
Everyone in this country is provided with opportunities for
education. All our students, from primary school children to university
students, now receive free education. In particular, with the
introduction of compulsory secondary education, all children are
studying, at the state’s expenses, up to the middle-school level. The
students of colleges and universities are also benefiting, with uniforms
and scholarships being provided by the state. In the past, education was
accessible only to the rich. But today everyone is given opportunities
to learn. Therefore, you do not need to worry about the education of
your sons and daughters.
As our population ratio indicates, our country ranks first in the
world in the number of students. They account for one-fourth of the
population. It is not because our country is wealthy that we give free
education to this huge number of students. The state’s burden of
providing free education to the students is very heavy. However, in
spite of this, we give education to the students, since we can only
develop our once-backward country rapidly by educating all members
of the new generation.
In our country the workers, farmers and other working people are
454
granted political freedom and rights. All the working people are
entitled by right to participate directly in the elections to the organs of
power and to be elected deputies to these organs at all levels.
Today in our country there are neither people who are well-off
particularly nor people who are poor. Our people are equally well-off,
free from worries about jobs, food, clothing or shelter.
Our Party’s policy aims at making all people well-to-do equally.
Therefore, in developing the economy, too, we are to ensure that all
people are equally fed, clad and housed. At present the capitalist
countries are producing luxurious goods in large quantities. But we
intend to make such goods a little later.
We are not yet in a position to lead a life of luxury and
sumptuousness. It is only fifteen years since our country was freed
from the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism and it is also not long
since the war ended. Instead of leading a luxurious life, we must now
make our country rich, strong and developed and strive to lay its
economic foundations firmly in order to provide our people with a
better life in the future. We are educating the people in this spirit.
I was told that after their return to the homeland, some of them said
that there was no need to go on with construction work since
everything had been built. But we are still a long way away from
transforming our country into a developed, rich and strong nation.
Factories and houses alone would not suffice.
We must transform our country, which had remained backward for
thousands of years, into a socialist state, rich, strong and prosperous.
And we must reunify our divided country, so that the people in the
southern half, too, would be able to live all together as we are now with
you. Therefore, we have a lot of work to do. You, too, must make a
positive contribution to the nation-building: you who have knowledge,
give your knowledge to it and you who have strength, give it strength.
We believe that you have returned home from Japan with such a
resolution. The Party and Government will fully create the necessary
conditions for you to put your determination into effect.
You can get jobs according to your wishes and abilities. Some
455
people seem to be worrying about jobs because they had no secure jobs
and no particular skill while in Japan. But there is no reason for them to
think so. Those with no skill may choose jobs which are suitable to
their physical constitution and inclination. They would be able to learn
while on the job.
Those who were engaged in the educational field in Japan may
work in this field according to their wishes. Today in our country,
preparations are under way to introduce universal nine-year
compulsory technical education. The schools of all levels-from
primary schools to universities-are steadily increasing. Therefore,
many more teachers are needed.
The literary and art workers may engage themselves in literary
and art activities in accordance with their wishes. The composers may
compose music and poets write poems. In our country there are no
such cases as literary and art workers losing their employment and
begging for their food because their work is in little demand as in
capitalist society. Our literary and art workers are adequately
provided with every condition needed to give the fullest scope to their
talents.
The students repatriated from Japan will be able to study at schools,
with scholarships, school things and uniforms supplied by the state.
Traders and manufacturers will also be granted all necessary living
conditions. Their properties will be placed under the legal protection of
the state and no damage would be done to them. They may deposit
their money in the ha nk or leave it at their disposal. They may sell their
equipment to the state or work with it as members of producers’
cooperatives and get profit shares according to the pooled equipment
size. The state will provide the repatriated traders and manufacturers
with houses. They may build houses independently if they wish to,
and, in that case, the state will supply them with the necessary
materials.
Today, no private traders and manufacturers exist in our country.
All those people who had once been engaged in private trade and
manufacture have freely joined the producers’ cooperatives or
456
state-run factories and enterprises and are working there. Thus they
now work and live a fruitful life as honourable socialist working
people. If entrepreneurs or merchants engage themselves in physical
labour, their social status would be changed and transformed.
The repatriated traders and manufacturers may choose jobs
according to their wishes and abilities. Those people who were
engaged in trade may work in the trading establishments and those
people who managed enteiprises may work at factories and enterprises
or producers’ cooperatives.
Those comrades who carried on political activity in Japan may
continue with political work. They may work in the working people’s
organizations such as the trade unions, the Democratic Youth League
and the Women’s Union, and economic establishments and
government bodies. Since those comrades who engaged in political
activity in Japan have rendered a good service to the Korean
revolution, they justly deserve to be given preferential treatment. They
may study at the Central Party School or the National Economy
University.
In our country factory and office workers work eight hours a day
and in the remaining hours they study and rest. Our Party considers
studying to be a most important revolutionary task. In the homeland
the entire Party, all the people and the entire army are now at their
books. Full conditions are provided for studying while at work. So you
must study hard while at work whether you work in factories or rural
areas.
We will consider the families of those comrades who died while
fighting for the homeland in Japan as the bereaved families of
revolutionaries and take good care of them. We will offer them
preferential learning opportunities and bring them up as fine people. In
our country the sons and daughters of revolutionaries are studying at
the schools for the bereaved children of revolutionaries under the
special care of the state. The bereaved children of revolutionaries who
have returned from Japan can also study at these schools.
If the Korean orphans and the old people who have no other means
457
of support return home, we would see to it that the former study at
proper schools and the latter live in comfort for the rest of their days at
homes for the aged. Our Party regards it as its national duty to look
after the compatriots.
Our Party has proposed to the south Korean authorities that it was
ready to have orphans and jobless people in south Korea transferred
to the northern half and to guarantee them adequate living conditions
and jobs. But the Syngman Rhee clique refuse to accept our Party’s
proposal, saying that it had only been made for “propaganda”
purposes. But this was not true. Our proposal was sincere and it had
emanated from our love and concern for our compatriots. The very
fact that you returned home today, I think, is a good proof to show
that our compatriotic proposal was not made for “information”
purposes.
If the jobless people who are suffering in the south come over to the
north, we would accept them with open arms and provide all of them
with jobs. There are abundant natural resources to be developed and
there is a lot of work to be done in socialist construction of the northern
half of Korea. So, even if hundreds of thousands of jobless people were
to come over to the north, we would provide all of them with jobs.
The Japanese reactionaries are said to have some doubts about how
many compatriots in Japan we are able to absorb. We are in a position
to accept all the 600,000 Korean nationals in Japan. We can accept
them all, and give all of them jobs and guarantee them a secured life.
Accepting the overseas compatriots to ensure them a secured life is
possible only under our socialist system.
Some of the compatriots repatriated from Japan will be working in
the capital and some others in local areas. But wherever you work in
our country, it will be all right.
Everywhere there are factories, enterprises and cultural facilities.
There are also nice houses and the electricity supply has been
extended to all regions. Therefore, localities are as convenient as the
capital. The repatriated compatriots can display their skills and
abilities to the full and lead a secure life, even though they might be
458
posted to work in local districts.
We will never be indifferent to those compatriots who remain in
Japan, unable to return home due to uncontrollable circumstances. Our
Party and the Government of the Republic will continue to make
efforts to protect the democratic, national rights of the Korean citizens
in Japan and guarantee them good living conditions. And we will
continue to forward educational aid funds and scholarships for the
education of the sons and daughters of compatriots in Japan. We are in
duty bound to educate the Korean students in Japan.
Today the repatriation of the compatriots from Japan to their
homeland is open. But the enemies are making a desperate effort to
block it. Of late, they have resorted to all sorts of manoeuvres,
including setting of terrorists on the loose, to prevent our compatriots
in Japan from returning home. And they even attempted to explode the
repatriation ships. We must keep a strict vigilance against hostile
activities and protect the repatriation ships. If our vigilance were to be
relaxed, accidents might take place.
The reunification of the country is the greatest task confronting our
people at present.
In order to accomplish this task, we must accelerate socialist
construction in the northern half of Korea. Only then would we be able
to consolidate the revolutionary base in the north and make full
preparations to cope with the great revolutionary event-national
reunification.
The question of reunifying our country is related to that of driving
the US imperialists out of south Korea. When the world revolutionary
forces are further strengthened and the US imperialists driven into a
blind alley everywhere in the world, their foothold in south Korea will
be weakened still further and our country’s reunification achieved
more quickly. Therefore, we should strive to strengthen the
international revolutionary forces and consolidate our solidarity with
them, while also consolidating the revolutionary forces in the north.
Our country will certainly be reunified. It is a law of historic
development that imperialism is to collapse. The Japanese imperialists
459
seemed strong in the past but they were defeated after all. The US
imperialists, too, will go under before long.
We must be fully prepared to mark the great revolutionary event of
national reunification victoriously.
Let us all join our strength together and build a splendid socialist
fatherland.
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